Good Shepherd Sunday

On Sheep- Sheep are helpless. Their only defense is to run faster than their brothers, sister, offspring. Sheep cannot protect themselves. Despite that, and with no effort beyond how it was created, sheep give of themselves to an even more helpless being; Man- a being who is incapable of producing anything usable of itself. Sheep clothe and feed man, though effort is needed to create the result. The raw materials are replenished and repeated until mankind can perfect the gifts given by helpless sheep. We as Christians are like sheep. We have a renewable resource to offer the even more helpless through our faith and generosity- to feed and clothe those who cannot produce of themselves. The herd must move, must change. It can not stay in the same place or it will destroy that which feeds it. It will befoul the water. The flock will die if does not continue to seek out a way to healthy lands. The shepherd see the flock's destination through forethought, experience, and intellect. The flock is unable to see as far as the shepherd. A shepherd cannot hope to accomplish this task alone. Dogs of similar size and shape guide the sheep. They can not be expected to give exact directions. They can not anticipate every gopher hole, hidden cliffs. Sheep dogs suggest, they encourage a direction for the flock. The dogs protect the flock, standing between them and danger defending because it knows the sheep are indeed vulnerable. When the shepherd is unavailable, he trusts his dogs to do their job in his place. The Shepherd has faith the sheep will be kept safe until his return.

An artist is born with a heart half broken. Life and it's trials can increase that proportion. It can never be lower than half- except for when we are engaged in our art. The greatest hurt comes from those who do not respect this fact, who tell us our problems are not real, we should be glad for what we have, or just how it could be worse. It can be no worse than knowing yourself, knowing your place, and exactly how that place connects you to God and not being able to be there.

just the obvious

Almost every faith believes it is the best. I have run into many people who near taunting brag has been "You would be better off if you had my faith." I was belittled and hurt by the paraphrases of this statement. Then I looked at the words floating behind my eyes and took the tone, the emotion- mine and theirs- away and read the words "...if you had faith like mine...". I moved the importance and emphasis around and edited like a mad woman those overused prepositional phrases. If you had faith -
Serendipity was right :-)