“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. (Juan 10:14-17 NIV)
In the Bible we find verses that speak that we are like sheep in the flock of the Lord. We are certain that Jesus is the good shepherd who loves, feeds, cares for and guides the sheep, but the question is: Am I the sheep who allows to be loved, fed, cared for and guided?
Upon investigation, I found that there are different kinds of sheep:
1.- Sheep that go faster: they are those sheep that do not follow the shepherd, walk faster than him, deviate and easily get lost on the way. To this type of sheep, the shepherd puts a stone tied to the rear left leg, as a brake to make their walk slower, until they learn to walk at the pace of the flock and the shepherd. Sometimes we are like these sheep when we go before the shepherd, making decisions alone, ahead of time, not following instructions.
2.- Late Sheep: To these, the shepherd gives them a light tap on the head, or ties them to another one that is walking; until they learn to stay in the fold. Sometimes we are like these sheep when we we distract with ease, we do not follow in the footsteps of the shepherd, we do not focus on the purpose.
3.- Rebellious sheep: they are the sheep that do not obey, they rebel against the shepherd, they do what they want. To these, the shepherd gives soft blows behind the ear. We can identify with this kind of sheep, sometimes we do what the flesh calls us and not what the Spirit guides us.
4.- Contentious sheep: When two sheep fight with each other, the shepherd ties them leg to leg for a while; until they realize that they have to learn to eat, drink and live together. As sheep of the same flock we must learn to relate to people inside and outside the church, and many times we must learn to control our temper when there are controversies or differences. 5.- Sheep that look for foreign pastures: These are the ones that jump the fence of the sheepfold, to look for pastures in foreign places. The shepherd poured bitter oil on the pastures that were not in the fold, so that they would learn to stay in their fold.
6.- Sheep that go astray: These are the sheep that stray so far from the fold, that they get lost and do not know how to return, the shepherd looks for them, covers them with his mantle and brings them back to the fold.
7.- Broken sheep: These sheep have a mixture of the previous ones. Sometimes they go ahead, then they fall behind, sometimes they rebel against the shepherd, and fight with him, and with the other sheep, seek other pastures and finally lose their way very often, dragging other sheep after him, the shepherd them. has rescued more than once. With these, the pastor has to make a painful decision: to discipline them, he proceeds to lay them down on a table, and hits them hard with a stick; so that he breaks their thigh. When the shepherd picks up the broken sheep, he lovingly heals it, splints it, and brings it close to Him. The sheep goes through a process but understands and never moves away from its shepherd, to be guided and becomes the closest sheep to its shepherd.
When I was 5 years old, I had an accident and I broke my right leg, it was a very painful and complex process, and one becomes dependent on someone to do everything that is normally common to do. This is how it happens when the Lord allows correction in our life, we must go through a perhaps painful process, but in the end we will understand the purpose, we will become closer to our Father to love him more, honor him more and obey him more.
There are many people who have been through situations where they were broken. But sometimes instead of looking for the pastor and letting him splint them, sell them with love and put ointment on them, they have decided to continue like this, and every time they continue walking broken, the pain becomes more intense and they fall again and again time.
The Lord is your shepherd and wants to heal you, He has allowed you to be broken because otherwise you would not be looking for Him. If you were not broken you would not need the good shepherd or you would probably keep walking in the wrong direction, you would get lost and the enemy would find you. would catch easily.
God allows moments in our life where there are things that break our faith, joy, hope. But they are processes that the Father as a good shepherd uses to stop us and thus transform our hearts, minds and return us to Him .
