The gentle shepherd

"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep." - John 10:11

"He tends his flock like a shepherd," wrote Isaiah, the prophet of Israel. "He gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them close to His heart; He gently leads those that have young" (Isaiah 40:11).

Isaiah lived seven hundred years before Christ, yet the image of a shepherd is almost as powerful in the Middle East today as it was then. From the burning sands of the Negev to the gentle hills where the blue Mediterranean meets land, shepherds are still found in abundance.

"Like a shepherd He takes care of His flock," wrote Isaiah of the Almighty. He cares for His own. David, who spent his early years as a shepherd, wrote that "we are His people, the sheep of His pasture (Psalm 100.3). Of all the creatures that God ever made, sheep are among the least intelligent. Lions roam the jungles. Alligators take care of themselves. Birds take off to the air. But without a shepherd to protect sheep, they wander off into danger and soon fall prey to disaster.

No wonder Isaiah wrote, "We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way" (Isaiah 53:6). One of the amazing characteristics of this grand old book, the Bible, is that though the authors may be separated by centuries and by cultures, yet they say the same thing. Both the Old and New Testament picture God, our Heavenly Father, as one who cares for His own, who–in spite of our failure, and our wandering dereliction from what we know is right–seeks us out like a shepherd searching for lost sheep, and gently leads us back to the fold.

Can you relate to the lost sheep, estranged and cut off from the care of the shepherd, from the warmth of a father’s love? The fact is, the Shepherd of your soul is searching for you far more urgently than you are for Him. God, at times, uses gentle persuasion to get our attention, sometimes difficulty, sometimes the pain of a broken relationship, sometimes the heartache of rejection. Then we realize that the missing ingredient in our lives is a relationship with God, and the Shepherd of our souls leads us back home.

The story that Jesus told of a youth that rebelled against his father’s authority and journeyed far into the world–we call it the story of the Prodigal Son–is a picture of the Father’s love for the son who has strayed.

There’s good news, friend. No matter where you are, how far you have strayed, or how great your pain, those words of Isaiah are still good news: "He gathers the lambs in His arms...He gently helps the sheep and their lambs." - Resource Reading: Isaiah 53