Season of Preparation Day Thirteen: God’s Good Shepherd

“I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me,” John 10:14

There is but one Good Shepherd. If we’ve learned anything this past year, it’s that our human shepherds are . . . human.

Going into the role of ministry or becoming a pastor doesn’t take away one’s humanness. Even the most devout of our pastors are still human with all the frailties that come with it—including the weakness to be tempted by sin, to misstep, and to fall. But I have a Good Shepherd who will never fail or disappoint me.

There are several pastors I enjoy listening to on podcasts or through their televised services, but one of my favorites also speaks with a voice the soothes me to sleep. He preaches with boldness, teaching straight from God’s word, and I never find his content boring. Yet there is a quality in his voice that soothes me right to sleep when I listen to him. He’s not dry or monotone. In fact, he’s one of the most passionate preachers I listen to. But when he talks, I feel such a deep connection to Christ that I find myself relaxed, unworried, and content. I know his voice. But he’s still human and may one day stumble. I can never lose sight of the fact he’s still only a man.

There is one whose voice I should know even better—that of the Good Shepherd. But do I? He speaks to me continually throughout my day. What might I have missed because I’ve failed to comprehend a nuanced tone or failed to perceive his soft whisper? Because I’ve been too distracted to listen?

Even more frightening, do I ever mistake the enemy’s voice for the voice of my Savior? Satan isn’t known as the Father of Lies because his lies are easy to detect. He’s the Father of Lies because they are so deceptively close to the truth. If I’m not listening close, I might not detect his slight deceit.

But how do I know the voice of my Shepherd? I handle his word daily with attention and intention.

I am reminded of the analogy how bank tellers are taught to recognize counterfeit money. They don’t learn by handling counterfeits. They learn by only handling the real thing. By only handling the truth they become equipped to recognize a lie.

In a world filled with those who would shepherd by misleading, whether with intention or with failure to understand, it is my duty to know the voice of my Shepherd. I must handle only the real thing so the counterfeits will be obvious.

But this doesn’t apply just to biblical truth. It applies to the things I turn to for comfort or safety. Is Jesus the first thing I seek? Or am I first handling the comfort of cultural conformity or the safety of financial wealth? Understanding that sheep are creatures easily mislead helps me to recognize the importance of finding and following the right voice. The One Voice who has laid down his own life to rescue me.

I wonder at the humility it took for the shepherds of the field that night—grown men made tough by a hard life—to see their Shepherd, their long-awaited Savior, as a helpless baby. It’s easy to recognize our Lord and Savior in the returning Christ mounted on a white horse, his robe dipped in blood, and his tongue a two-edged sword, leading the armies of heaven. But recognizing him as a newborn infant, well . . .  that might have taken a host of heavenly angels.

And a humbling of my spirit.

This Christmas I want to humble my spirit so that I may listen with my heart and respond with my soul to the voice of my Savior, the Good Shepherd.