Tell Me What You See ~ Someone to Watch Over Me

Greetings Dear Reader,

I have recounted this before, but it leads to what I am pondering today.  During my senior year in high school, I broke my leg very badly.  I was in the North Carolina woods but my home was in Atlanta.  Once I reached home, after a painful but temporary setting at a small clinic, I visited a renowned surgeon who operated on my led to repair it. 

That night neither of my parents were available to stay with me.  I was in the most severe pain I have ever known.  A nurse, the mother of some of my friends “just happened” to be on duty on the evening shift at the hospital.  After my parents left, this nurse told me she remembered me.  She stopped by room every half hour to check on me.  Then, when her shift ended, she took a seat next to my bed.  Throughout that first night, she sat by me, fed me ice chips, prayed for me, and constantly quoted the 23^rd Psalm to me.  She watched over me all night.

When we look at Jesus’ statement about being our Good Shepherd, we are given the great gift of someone to watch over us.  We have a shepherd who loves his sheep.  Here is what Jesus says:

John 10:11-18 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So, when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.  “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”

The thing I wish to see clearly is that once again Jesus connects who he is to love and life.  He does not dwell on the shepherd being in control or the authority.  He focuses on the relationship.  His aim is to remind us that from the Father to the Son to the sheep there is life and love. 

The Son loves us so he lays down his life for us.  The Son puts our lives ahead of his.  He knows us and wants us to know him.  All that he asks is that we follow in faith.  He wishes for us to love the Father and love each other.  He provides for our needs and never leaves us alone.  He guards and guides.  

Again, life is tied to who Jesus is. Again, when we look at him, not what is said about him by anyone, there is something there that matters deeply to each of us.  I have to see the Shepherd that Jesus is.  He is good, sacrificial, and constant.  This helps me see clearly who I follow and why.  Tell me what you see, Dear Reader.

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn
Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a homeowner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”
(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Every human story is part of the great story that leads to the Father getting everything back to Good.

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“I'm a little lamb who's lost in the wood, I know I could, always be good to one who'll watch over me” – Ella Fitzgerald