The Shepherd for the Lambs

      (References: Psalms 23; Isaiah 53:5-6, 9, 11; John 10:1-11; 20:1-10)

     Psalm 23 is one of those passages from Scripture that if not careful, is easy to pass over.  Almost every kid in a Christian home will have memorized the psalm, so because the words are familiar, the meaning may be lost at first glance.  So, when I came across this passage for devotions one morning, I knew I needed to pause and ask God to help me look beyond what I already knew.
     The first few verses made me reflect on this past year.  I have revolved so much about me, and in the last several months, it is as if God has been remaking me, putting me in a fire to burn away all the dead things in me.  This story of my life has never been about me.  It is about God, and His glory.  Then there was verse five.  "You anoint my head with oil..."
     Cue long pause.
     I don't deserve my head to be anointed.  Maybe that's the point, though.  I am not worthy.  I have transgressed.  I have iniquity in my history.  I have aimed to find my own peace and healing - and tried to prove my own goodness as a Christian, and that's where I lost it.  But Jesus died for me.  He made His bed with the wicked (see Isaiah 53), so that I could become a child of God.
     I am reminded of the two disciples that ran to His tomb after the news of His resurrection.  One was the most loyal and faithful - the one who stood at the feet of Jesus as He was nailed and bloodied on a tree.  The other could be considered (after Judas) to be the most faithless; betraying his association in the hour of need.  I am not like John.  I wish I was.  I am more like Peter.  And yet, even in his brokenness, he ran to Jesus. 
     I realize that I have pressed God into a corner.  Or I forbade Him to come to a part of the house (ain't that easy to do?).  But I can't do it, anymore.  Peter did the same thing.  Actually, all the disciples did.  But Jesus died so our sin would not define us.  He died to free us and bring glory to the Father.  
     I was wondering what Christmas would mean for me, this year.  Sometimes, as familiar verses, it can become rhetoric and ritualistic.  But now I am reminded that I am a lamb who needs constant guidance and course correction.  I have been broken and need restoration.  However, no matter what I can do, I am still marked.  And yet...the Shepherd who cares for me thought it fitting to die in my place.  The Shepherd's life for His lambs.
   
     There is born to you this day in the city of David, a Savior, Christ the Lord.  Behold the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world!