The Eighth Day of Advent

The Eighth Day of Advent

Sunday, December 10, 2017

I am the good shepherd, 

and know my sheep,

and am known of mine..

John 10:14

Recently I was in a restaurant and I noticed someone sitting at a table nearby. She is a woman I have known for many years, a well-known woman in the community. Maybe we could even call her a celebrity – Citrus County style. She and I have talked many times. In fact, she has been in my home on at least two occasions and in my office at least once, and I have been in her home. When I first saw her across the restaurant, I smiled and started to speak. The expression on her face, however, encouraged me to believe that she did not know me. There was no response to my smile – no wave, no returned smile. I thought, “She doesn’t remember me.”

I can honestly say it didn’t bother me. She probably has people she barely knows speaking to her all the time, but it caused me to think. It had been a long time since we had spoken last. There was no need for her to remember. Our relationship had never been on more than a somewhat superficial basis. Whatever the reason, she didn’t speak because to her I was just another stranger.

Not so with Jesus! No matter how long it has been since we talked, no matter how busy our schedule has been that prevented us from visiting with him, no matter how far we have pushed him from our daily lives, he remembers us. He knows us. And he speaks because he knows that we “know his voice.” He looks at us and sees the sheep that has wandered away. When we recognize him, he does not look away. He looks directly at us, leaves the ones he is now with, and comes to us to take us back to be with the others of his flock! No matter how long we have neglected our relationship to him, he always comes to take us back, like a “good shepherd,” who goes after his lost sheep.

Read this beautiful passage in John 10. You’ll be pleased to find there our wonderful shepherd who speaks gently and clearly to his flock.

Father, thank you that Jesus knows all of us – individually – who belong to him. Thank you that when we hear him speak we know his voice and need have no fear. Thank you that he doesn’t forget who we are. Help us never to forget who he is! Amen

The Light of the World
prepared for Homosassa United Methodist Church, 2008,
by Patience Nave, Christian Education Coordinator.