Love and Diligent Care

Sheep “are susceptible to fewer hazards of health or parasites where the climate is dry. But in those same regions it is neither natural nor common to find green pastures.” 34
“Green pastures do not just happen by chance. Green pastures were the product of tremendous labor, time and skill in land use. Green pastures were the result of clearing rough, rocky land; of tearing out brush and roots and stumps; of deep plowing and careful soil preparation; of seeding and planting special grain and legumes; of irrigating with water and husbanding with care the crops of forage that would feed the flocks.” A Shepher Looks at Ps. 23, 34

“What a picture of love and diligent care this brings. You portray yourself as the good shepherd, the one who will do all of these things for his sheep. I am amazed all over again at the lengths that you will go to help us to understand the love and care that you have for us. YOU try every angle, desperately trying to get through to our dull hearts.
I picture you out in the hot scorching sun, sweating and chopping, sweating and pulling, sweating and picking rocks, sweating and plowing. You don’t hire the back breaking work out. You do it yourself, hour after lonely hour. You drink great drafts of water and go at it again. YOU the God and Creator of the universe, not too good to do the work of the common laborer. There is so much that can be drawn from this picture.

I can see YOUR great heart yearning after me, trying to touch my heart from every angle that you can. YOU must despair of ever reaching my stupid senses, my shriveled little heart. I want to hear your heart. Forgive me for my dullness. Forgive me for my blind and deaf humanity. Please put your heart, your ears, and your eyes in me. Help me to see you as you are. Help me to see other’s as you see them. Give me your compassion, your love, your understanding, your gentleness. I am so full of myself. I want to be full of you.

I wonder what metaphors you would use for yourself today, in our age of technology. Our times are so distant and impersonal. Would you still use the great outdoors and the things of nature to describe yourself? Our lives are so detached from all that is natural. We work with computers, satellites, cell phones and the list goes on and on. We are insulated from nature and the natural world. How do you get thru to us? How do you speak to us? How do you illustrate yourself in the plastic and metal world in which we live? Yet you do, I know you do, because You speak to my heart.

Much Later.

Precious Jesus and Papa Father,
How I love you for your compassionate care.
How I love you for trying so desperately to break through my dull senses.