The Good Shepherd

There is a moment most of us know well. It is not a dramatic moment. It is not the kind that makes the evening news. It is quieter than that — and far more personal. It is the moment when life has pressed in so hard, from so many directions, that you simply cannot find your footing. You cannot find your next step. You can barely find your breath. Maybe it came in the middle of the night. Maybe it came in a doctor's office, or at a graveside, or in the silence after a door closed for the last time. Maybe it is with you even now, sitting in this very place.

Rachel Kohrs sings to us from that exact moment in her song Catch Your Breath. When you can't seem to find your step — just hold me and tell me, you just have to catch your breath. No fixing. No rushing. No demand that you pull yourself together. Just presence. Just the quiet promise: I'll be there to stay with you, cry with you, hold you until it's day.

That is not just a love song. That is a theology, a reminder that Jesus our brother, our friend, our Good Shepherd is present with us. He carries us so we can rest as restoration begins. He shows us the path that leads to abundance and nurtures us as we walk it. As we draw near to the Good Shepherd, the Shepherd draws near to us, holding us gently, fully present, loving us in our tender moments. 

Jesus, knows each sheep by name…He is a radical balance of human and divine who walks ahead of us and strives with us in our time of need. There is something powerful about being fully known and accepted just as we are.  It is when we are known in this way that we are free to soar, to be and become the person we are meant to be. 

The story of the Good Shepherd is meant to comfort but more than that it is an invitation to a ministry of presence, compassion and kindness.  We are invited to be the Good Shepherd with those we encounter each day.  Not only in the easy times but in the gut wrenching times when life is a mess and the person in front of us wonders how much longer they can go on.

In those moments, we have a choice.  Do we accept the person where they are knowing this is not where they will stay, and love them with compassion, as Jesus did? Do we bring peace and presence? Or do we stare and walk away?

It is in those moments we can speak the quiet promise from Rachel’s song…”I’ll be there to stay with you, cry with you, hold you until it’s day.”