My 5year old daughter gets very upset if we do not get to read her bible. She says “ek gaan skeef groei!” I will grow skew! So basic but so profound!
Jesus speaks to me in John 10 when He explains to the pharisees through the parable of the Kind Shepherd. But He also names other things in that parable… thieves, gatekeepers, workers, and “others” or strangers
What I like about this parable, is that we as sheep will know our Shepherd’s voice. We trust in our Shepherd. We don’t know where we are going today, or how far we will be walking, but we do know that we will get food today, and we will get water today.
Jesus says a stranger will come and try and get the flock to follow him, but they won’t, because they know the voice of their master… which is what my daughter is telling me every night we get into bed: She wants to learn the voice of God… she wants to know the voice of her Father.
“I alone am the Good Shepherd, and I know those whose hearts are mine, for they recognize Me and know Me,”
John 10:14
Now… Isn’t it just like the devil to twist this parable into foolishness? Why listen to the shepherd? Why don’t you think for yourself? (anyone recognize Eve and the serpent?) The devil turned the parable into mockery, into an insult. Recognize the phrase: Wake Up Sheeple?! A social derision, twisted from its true meaning.
Maybe he can’t make you follow him, steal you away, kill you or destroy you… but maybe its good enough to just let you wonder off… unprotected, unfed…
Or maybe I will focus to learn what _our Shepherd’s_ voice sounds like? And more importantly, also what it doesn’t sound like?
Wow! It sounds almost perfect… but not quite… that sounds like “the worker who serves only for wages [that] is not a real shepherd. Because he has no heart for the sheep he will run away and abandon them when he sees the wolf coming. And then the wolf mauls the sheep, drags them off, and scatters them…” (John 10:13)
And then… simply to trust in our Shepherd? I don’t know where I am going today, or how far I will be walking, but I do know that I will get enough food today, and I will get enough water today. because “… I have come to give you everything in abundance, more than you expect – life in its fullness until you overflow!” (John 10:10)
