I AM the Good Shepherd

I AM the Good Shepherd

I am the Good Shepherd.  

The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.  

John 10:11

There is a large attic space situated just above my office.  It is a huge room filled with advent decorations, Christmas trees, wreaths, plastic palm plants for Palm Sunday, racks and tubs and boxes filled with assorted nativity costumes, and a whole gob of left-over Vacation Bible School decorations.

On the children's costume rack in the corner are about a dozen tiny sheep costumes that are absolutely adorable:  fuzzy, pristine white costumes matched with white stretch headbands with black ears attached.  So cute.  The problem is, sheep do not look like that.  At least, the ones in last year’s live nativity certainly didn’t.  The color of their matted wool was somewhere between café latte, rolled dirt and burnt umber.  Maybe they were supposed to be fluffy clean and white, but their actual appearance didn’t even come close.

Jesus made the statement, “I am the Good Shepherd.”  He also indicated that we, His people, are the sheep.  When Adam and Eve were created and placed in the Garden, their lives were innocent - pure and white, just like the proverbial woolly sheep. Sin changed all that.  Now, as Isaiah so eloquently stated, our lives resemble “filthy rags,” just like the café latte lambs.  The beautiful message of this text is that Jesus laid down His life for His sheep - for you and for me – making our garments “… white in the blood of the Lamb.”

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Gentle Shepherd, come and lead us,

For we need you to help us find our way.

Gentle Shepherd, come and feed us,

For we need Your strength from day to day.

There’s no other we can turn to

Who can help us face another day.

Gentle Shepherd, come and lead us,

For we need You to help us find our way.

Hymns for the Family of  God, No. 596