Good Shepherd....

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He is good, you know....this Shepherd of ours......

not some distant deity,

but here,

nearer than touch,

eating, sleeping, breathing with us,

in it with us,

 for the long haul....

...through green pastures and the shadow of death alike,

guiding us,

rod and staff at the ready,

not to clobber us over the head for misdeeds and missteps,

but to Comfort us,

To Comfort Us....

He looks for and delights in, as all good parents do,

the wonderful in his children,

not what's wrong with them...

That misperception has been impressed on us

by others

by hirelings,

who do not know His heart...

A Heart so consumed with His Beloved

His Chosen

His very own Creation,

His Magnum Opus...

We have a Shepherd Who will go head to head

with anyone who dares say differently

A Shepherd Who will defend to the death

His own,

and indeed,

did just that,

at Calvary...

Shepherd became Sheep,

became Lamb of God,

taking the blows we could not bear,

dying the death He could not bear to see us die,

so that any doubt of His Devotion

of His Deep Abiding Love

would be removed Forever,

so we would follow,

unflinchingly,

fearlessly,

The Good Shepherd

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"I AM the Good Shepherd.  
The Good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep.  
But a hireling, he who is not The Shepherd,
one who does not own the sheep, 
sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep.
I AM the Good Shepherd; and I know My sheep,
and am known by My own."

-John 10:11-14