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The Forward Day by Day Meditation for May 3, 2022

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TUESDAY, May 3
[Elizabeth Cruciger]

Psalm 28:11 Save your people and bless your inheritance; shepherd them and carry them forever.

We had fifty ewes. In the summer, we kept them in electric fenced paddocks and moved them several times a week to fresh pasture. They learned the sound of my voice and would come to the gate to go to bed or to feed. In the winter, they would come to the hay I fed from a horse-drawn sleigh. During lambing season, we checked on them every few hours and moved new lambs and their ewes to little pens so that they would not get claimed by the wrong mom. We made sure they were nursing, and sometimes we had to warm lambs in hot water baths in the sink. Despite all this care, if I needed to get my hands on a sheep, I had to force it into a confined area and snatch it with a crook.

It seems to me that we sometimes behave the same way with our Shepherd, happy to oblige when we’re having all our needs met but scampering out of arm’s reach when it’s time for a course correction. Thanks be to God, who with mercy and grace, carries and loves us—even when we need a shepherd’s crook.

MOVING FORWARD: How often are you obedient to God? How often do you need the shepherd's crook?

PRAY for the Diocese of Langtang (Nigeria)

Ps 26, 28 * 36, 39 | Exodus 19:1-16 | Colossians 1:1-14 | Matthew 3:7-12