"The Lord is my
shepherd;
I shall not want
2 He makes me to lie down in green pastures…
He leads me in the paths of righteousness
For His name’s sake…"
(Psalm 23)
“Green pastures.”
I know what you are all thinking -- you are imagining rolling hills of bright
green, golf-course like perfection, where sheep graze in the shade with a brook
of water not far from where they have a gourmet of grass to feed on.
Ah, green pastures.
Sorry to shake your image of what “green
pastures” are being referred to here, but
what the Psalm-writer was talking about when he said “green pastures,” this is what he would have meant:
That’s right: an almost desert-like area where you can
hardly see anything growing. Not exactly
the five-star golf resort you had in mind.
And those funny squiggly lines across (horizontally?) the hill? Those are “paths of righteousness.” Those funny looking, messy paths, are “paths
of righteousness.”
So here we have a desert-like “green”
pasture, which looks almost as if any
sheep would starve if that’s all they had to eat. But these “green pastures” are
significant. As you can tell by the
photos (and the reality of the middle east climate), there is very little
rainfall in these parts. So any growth
that happens is actually from the wet dew on these small plants that produce
this “pasture.” But these plants are so
sensitive, and get so little water, that if the sheep eat the entire plant and
get all the way down to the root, the fields and entire pasture gets exhausted
and leaves no chance for new growth for the plants. And no new growth, means no food for the
future…
So the shepherd’s job is to lead the sheep
in the paths of righteousness, but to keep
them moving. The shepherd’s job is to
make sure the sheep get just enough of the plants in the pasture before
encouraging them along, so to not eat too much of the plant that can grow back
for the next time they come to this pasture…
One thing we were asked to consider on our
journey is the meaning of these meager pastures. If God
is the one bringing us to such not-so-green pastures, this also means
God is the one encouraging us to keep moving in our journey. God doesn’t want us to get stuck in one place
on our journey; God the Shepherd wants to continue to lead us, to teach us, to
find new growth in our lives.
As a people and in our own individual
journeys, God is prodding us and encouraging us to keep moving. It is easy to get stuck in our faith
journeys, but God is always wanting us to open our eyes to new opportunities
and challenges and insights, so we can get the proper faith nourishment.
And for every individual person as well as every
church community, this could look very different. Maybe God is encouraging you to grow in your faith by starting a new
ministry in your church or community, or perhaps even seek full-time ministry yourself. Maybe God wants you to take a new step in your devotional life, or even nudging you to talk to a co-worker or neighbor about your hope in Christ. Maybe God is prodding your church to look at
new ways to serve your community, or to work with other churches in the area, or
other ways to keep moving forward as you keep your eye on Christ’s prize. These are all things God may be using to keep
us moving in our faith journey.
I’m just as guilty as the next person to
not want change and to “like things the way they are” not being prodded out of my comfort zone. But let us not ignore our
Shepherd’s voice as God may be encouraging us to follow his guidance and keep
moving in directions we may be unsure of.
And yes that path may be messy and squiggly but who knows… maybe in following the path God is leading us, we will be
blessed in far more ways we ever imagined…
"Lord, give us
feet for the path
strength for the Stride
passion for the Pace"
~Rev. George deJong
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