“My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.” John 10:27-28

It’s no secret that I love sheep and have had a collection since I was young. I know I have well over 500 of them, but I can still tell you where and from whom I got most of them. Now of course I know the sheep can’t hear me, they certainly don’t jump off the shelf and follow me around, and I can’t give them eternal life, but I do know them, they are mine.

Jesus, the good shepherd, knows each one of us intimately and calls out to us to follow him with our lives. Jesus calls each one of us by name and says to us, “I love you; you are mine!” But it seems to me we are not content with following, we want to branch out on our own. We listen to the voices of our society and follow the path of bigger, better, what’s best for us, instead of listening to the still small voice of God. A modern day parable for you to consider:

Once upon a time there was a shepherd looking after his sheep on the edge of a deserted road. Suddenly a brand new Porsche screeches to a halt. The driver, a man dressed in an Armani suit, Ray-Ban sunglasses, and all the finest garb money can buy gets out and asks the shepherd, “If I can tell you how many sheep you have, will you give me one of them?”

The shepherd looks at the young man, and then looks at the grazing sheep and replies, “OK.”

The young man parks the car, connects his laptop to the mobile-fax, enters a NASA website, scans the ground using his GPS, opens a database and 60 Excel tables filled with logarithms and pivot tables, then prints out a 150-page report on his high-tech mini-printer. He turns to the shepherd and says, “You have exactly 1,586 sheep here.”

The shepherd answers, “That’s correct, you can have your sheep.” The young man takes an animal and puts it in the back of his Porsche.

The shepherd looks at him and asks, “If I guess your profession, will you return my animal to me?” The young man answers, “Yes, why not?” The shepherd says, “You are a consultant.”

“How did you know?” asks the young man.

“Very simple,” answers the shepherd. “First, you came here without being called. Second, you charged me a fee to tell me something I already knew. Third, you don’t understand anything about my business. Now can I have my dog back?”

The good shepherd knows us by name, loves us and wants the best for each and every one of us. Being a part of the flock is a good place to be.

May God bless you in your work and in your play, in your serving and in your grazing.