Little One, can we think some more about Arnold’s nest?

We’ve already talked some about how big it is. And because it’s so big, there’s plenty of room for the baby eagle. The mama and daddy eagle keep their one baby eagle well-supplied with all that it needs.

Dear woman friend reading this, all of God’s lambs have a great big home waiting for them some day. Yes, God’s church should be a home for us now but we know that not all of God’s lambs are good with the other lambs. And, frankly, some of the lambs are actually wolves pretending to be lambs or who truly believe they are lambs but really aren’t.

But in the great big home waiting for God’s lambs, there won’t be any mistaken identity. No wolves will be there. No lambs who really aren’t lambs.

What is this home like? God’s Book, the Bible gives us some descriptions but a lot is left for us to wait and see. We couldn’t fathom what it will be like even if God gave us a photograph of it.

Below, I’ve included another Youtube link as I promised. This link is recording of a young girl singing a song I sang when I was a child. Listen to it and then come back and finish reading this post.

Did you watch the video? Do you wish you could “go there”? DO you wish you could be one of the Shepherd’s, the Lord Jesus, lambs? Do you know how to become one?

This is a picture of the “skin” on my laptop. When the laptop is open, anyone sitting in front of me can read it. The Good Shepherd, the Lord Jesus, isn’t asking you to become religious or change religions. Religions are based on something you have to do. The Lord Jesus is asking you to accept what He has already done for you. What has He done?

Let’s get a little background.

God is holy. He is totally perfect in every way. No flaw of any kind. And that is His standard. Our first parents, Adam and Eve, blew it. They had the choice and they chose to rebel against God. And the whole human race has been a race of rebels ever since. God says the wages or payment or penalty for our rebellion is death. Not just physical death. Spiritual death as well. That means spending eternity separated from God in a place called Hell. Yes, Hell is a real place. It’s not just a form of profanity.

God must carry out the sentence of death on all who sin (and that’s all of us) but He also loves us. He loves us so much that He provided His Son, Jesus, as a Substitute for us. He died so that we don’t have to die spiritually. Then, on the third day after His death, He rose again, breaking the power of sin and proving that God was satisfied with the payment made.

That’s what the Lord Jesus has done for you. He offers this to you as a gift. But like any gift, you have to accept it for it to become yours. How? That was something I didn’t understand for a long time. We’re not talking about something you can reach out and take with your hands. How do you accept this gift?

Let’s make it as simple as A-B-C because it really is that simple!

A—Admit your need. Admit you’re a sinner. God already knows but He wants you to acknowledge it.

B – Believe. Believe what? Believe what God has said about His Son: that He died as your Substitute and that he will forgive you and make His lamb (child) if you believe. Hint: this is not an academic belief. A2 +B2 may or may not equal C2 but I consider math to be sneaky and don’t trust it. This kind of belief isn’t like that bit of academic information. This is more like believing a bed will hold you so you lie down on it and curl up to take a nap.
C – Confess what you have chosen to believe (that Christ died as your Substitute and rose again) and call on Him to save you from the death sentence that is rightfully yours.

The very moment you do this with all of your heart, God promises He will do His part: save you from the death sentence imposed because of your sin and make you His child (or in the words of this blog, His lamb).

I beg you to do this right now. Please don’t wait to become part of His flock. There’s plenty of room for you like there’s plenty of room in Arnold’s nest for his baby eagle.

If you just did this or if you have done this at some time in the past, go listen to that song again as it describes your forever “nest”.

Look at Arnold up there, Little One. Watch him soar. Watching eagles gives you a sense that you’re seeing something majestic. Awe-inspiring. If you happen to be American, then you also feel patriotism and a sense of national pride since the bald eagle is America’s national bird and symbol.

Have you been able to figure out where Arnold’s nest is, Little One? Eagles tend to build their nests way high up. The trees around here aren’t that tall. I suppose it’s possible that his nest isn’t in this pasture. Growing up watching Saturday morning cartoons, I picture him building a nest on a cliff somewhere. We don’t have any cliffs around here.

Arnold looks tiny from down here, doesn’t he, Little One? Up close, he’s a much bigger bird. I was reading about eagles earlier this week and the book told how big an eagle’s nest is. With most birds, you can measure the size of their nests in inches. With eagles, you have to measure them in feet. That’s one roomy nest!

You know, Little One, as big as Arnold’s nest must be, I know of a home that’s even bigger. In fact, you might say it’s too big to fit on this planet. Now THAT’S a roomy nest!

Dear woman friend reading this, would you like a home that big? If you go to the link below, you can watch a humorous clip from Youtube about this home. Just copy and paste it into your browser.

I know. People have been hurt by others in the church. I know. People complain about how many hypocrites there are in the church. Leaders of churches can get messed up in terrible things just like someone outside the church.

But you know something? If you look at the people in the church, you will get hurt or let down every time because that’s what people do. Do you remember what the clip above said about behavioral alteration? What better place than the church for people who need their behavior altered? Actually, they need their heart altered. Replaced. They need a new heart. And who doesn’t need that?
How big is the church? Oh, I’m not talking about a building down the street. I’m talking about those who have trusted Jesus Christ as their Savior. They are the church, not a building. How big is the church? As the clip puts it, global. Intergalactic, really. That’s a roomy “nest”!

There’s room for you in this “nest” called the church. Maybe you have been hurt in the past. I surely can’t promise you won’t be hurt again because the other people in this “nest” are in the process of behavioral alteration as the clip says. But don’t you think it’s worth the risk?

The church isn’t the only “nest” for the believer. There‘s another “nest” we all look forward to moving into someday. Yes, I found a Youtube clip for that post, too, but that will have to wait for another time.

Little One! Look! Arnold’s landing! Let’s go ask him where his nest is! Maybe it’s in that really tall tree at the back of the pasture! Until next time, dear woman friend reading this, farewell!

It’s so nice here in the pasture. The sun is warm. The grass is nice and soft. Wish I could just lie down and take a nap. No, wake up! You’ve got way, way too much to do to waste time just lying around! You should be ashamed of yourself for being so lazy!

Hmmm. What’s going on over there? The shepherd seems to be calling his flock together. I wonder what the meeting is about. Wait a minute! We’re talking about sheep here, not managers in a corporation. Wake up and pay attention!
The whole flock is just lying down in the shade. The shepherd is sitting down and leaning against the tree. Little One has managed to work his way right up to the shepherd and is lying almost on his lap. Ooops! A couple of the lambs are too restless and have jumped back up to go and play some more. What was that? The shepherd is calling them back. They come back, almost reluctantly, and lie down again. It almost looks like nap time in kindergarten. That’s some lazy shepherd!

Huh? What? Oh, hi, Little One. I must have fallen asleep. Little One, why did the shepherd make all of you lie down? That’s such a waste of time. I know. Look who’s talking. I was so tired I fell asleep and you woke me up by nudging me. But resting seems like such a waste of time when there’s so much to do.
What did you say, Little One? Your shepherd knows you need to rest and that’s why he makes you lie down. He makes you lie down in green pastures. You all looked pretty comfortable just snoozing in the shade.

Dear woman friend reading this, are you tired? Exhausted? No, this is not an extended commercial for coffee or an energy drink. I’ve been drinking caffeine all day and it hasn’t helped much. Sometimes we just need to rest. Rest our bodies and our minds. We women carry a heavy load these days. Sometimes the best thing we can do is to rest.

I know. It’s not in our nature to rest. Or our culture. Our culture pushes us to do more and more and more. Our responsibilities seem ever-present and our to-do lists grow longer by the minute. But sometimes, we need to rest.
Or maybe we don’t want to rest. Maybe we’re like those two little lambs that were too restless to rest. That sounds funny. “Too restless to rest”. But it happens. Our responsibilities or fears or burdens weigh so heavily on us that we become too restless to rest. Maybe that’s why our Shepherd, the Lord Jesus, has to MAKE us rest sometimes. We don’t want to or can’t but He makes us do it. He knows we need rest. Rest for our bodies and for our minds. And our souls. He promises to give rest to those who come to Him. Come to Him today, dear woman friend reading this. Find the rest you so desperately need. Little One promises not to wake you up for a while by nudging you. He knows you need rest, too.

It’s so cold where I live. I’m glad it’s warm where Little One lives. Where is Little One? Oh, there he is, playing with some other lambs. We can chat when he gets tired and comes over to the shade here to rest.

Yesterday, Little One taught me about trusting my Shepherd to take care of me. I wonder what I can learn from him today. He’s sure having fun with his friends. He knows his shepherd is near so he feels safe. That’s one thing I can learn: I don’t need to be afraid when my Shepherd is near.

Little One and his friends must be tired now. They’re going to lie down in the shade and rest. Little One must not know I’m here to visit. I won’t disturb him. I’ll just watch and see what else I can learn from him.

Hmmm. He’s just staring at his shepherd. What’s that all about? It’s almost like he‘s studying his shepherd and trying to learn about him.

Dear woman reading this, what about you? What about me? Do we ever take the time to get quiet and study our Shepherd? Little One can see his shepherd with his physical eyes. We can’t do that. Jesus, our Shepherd, is no longer on earth in a physical body that we can see with our physical eyes. But that doesn’t mean we can’t study Him.

He has given us a book called the Bible. By studying that, we can “see” Jesus, our Shepherd, and learn what He is like. What’s more, we can know what our Shepherd thinks by reading the Bible. Little One can’t possibly know what his shepherd is thinking.

Does the Bible intimidate you? Do you think it’s so big and thick you could never read it all the way through? Do you think it’s a collection of fairy tales? Or maybe you don’t think about it at all? God says the Bible is true. He says He, Himself, is truth. Like we talked about in the last post, either He’s lying or He’s telling the truth. So let’s take another baby step and peek inside the Bible together.

If you’re looking at a print Bible and not one on a phone or some other electronic device, you can go to the front and find the table of contents. Look down through the list. Each of those names is called a “book”. Right at the beginning, you’ll find a book called “Genesis”. The word Genesis means “beginning” and the book of Genesis tells how everything began. Look down through the list. You’ll find 66 names or books on the list and they’re divided into two testaments, the Old Testament and the New Testament. You’ll find some weird names on the list. Names like Deuteronomy and Haggai. Don’t be turned off. There are reasons for the weird names.

Keep going down the list of books. Not quite two-thirds of the way down the list, you will come to the book of John. That’s where we want to start studying our Shepherd. Have you found it? Use the page numbers just like you would use any index. Don’t get confused here, John wrote five books and four of them are named after him. Be sure you’re looking at the Gospel of John and not first John. There it is. You got it!

Now you can see that John is divided into chapters like any book but it is also divided into verses. See how it works? Read just the first verse of the first chapter:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

I won’t torture you with long explanations here. Just trust me that in this verse, Jesus is the Word. Study that verse a minute. Just like Little One is studying his shepherd. What can we learn about our Shepherd? I don’t want to lecture. Read the verse over several times. See what you can learn. Maybe even go as far as to write down in a notebook what you learn. Little One can’t do that! Repeat the process with the next verse and so on!

Until we meet again, let’s be good sheep and study our Shepherd! Good bye!

Hello, Little One. I’m pretty tense right now so I thought I would come and visit with you for a while.

You know, Little One, I can learn a lot from you. God refers to His people sometimes as sheep. Do you think that could mean that people have some sheep-like tendencies? It must be or He wouldn’t have made the comparison. So is it all right with you if I just stay here for a while and let you be my teacher?

Little One, what do you do when you’re scared? Do you ever get scared? I was going to say that you must get scared sometimes because you’re only human. But you’re not human. You’re a lamb. Anyway, what do you do when you’re scared? I would imagine that you run and get as close to your shepherd as possible. Am I right? Why is that? Why do you go and get as close to your shepherd as possible? Is it because you have learned that your shepherd loves you and will take care of you? You don’t worry about having your needs met because you’ve learned through experience that your shepherd will take care of your needs. It’s the result of your relationship with your shepherd.

Relationship. That’s a tough word for a lot of people. Some have been in a bad relationship. Some have been in a relationship that was good and then turned bad. Some can’t quite figure out what a relationship is because they lost an important one when they were young. That’s me. I lost an important relationship when I was pretty young and the relationship you have with your shepherd is tough for me to understand because of that. It’s almost like learning a language when you’re an adult. It’s a whole lot easier to learn a language when you’re a child. It’s a whole lot easier to learn how to function in a relationship like you have with your shepherd if you start learning it as a child.

Here comes Arnold! Hello, Arnold. How are you today? Little One and I have been talking about …well, we started talking about what he does when he’s scared and that led into relationships. Little One is being my teacher today. Would you be willing to be my teacher, too, for a while?

Arnold, I really don’t know if baby eagles ever get scared. I mean, you build your nest so high up, I wonder if anything could really be a threat to your babies?

What about when your babies are learning to fly? If their little wings don’t quite have the strength yet that they need to soar with you and their mama, do they get scared then?

I’m not a person who knows a lot about birds but I understand that when a baby eagle is in danger of falling out of the sky, it’s parent will swoop down under the baby so that the baby actually lands on its parent’s back. Then the parent carries the baby safely back to the nest.

Arnold, for you to do that, you have to be watching your babies all the time, right? You couldn’t know they were in danger if you weren’t.

Dear woman reading this post, I don’t need to belabor the point. You and I are like sheep. God says so. In one of the most famous passages in the Bible, Psalm 23, the writer says God is his Shepherd. Jesus calls Himself the Good Shepherd. That’s why I wanted to let Little One be my teacher today and see what I can learn from him about his relationship to his shepherd that I can apply to my relationship with Jesus Who is my Shepherd. Dear woman, let’s learn together.
Because he’s learned from having a relationship with his shepherd that his shepherd will always take care of him, he goes to his shepherd when he’s scared.

There’s that word, “relationship”, again. Ouch! A bad relationship or a severed one can really make it tough to understand how God can possibly be any different. I don’t have any magic formula to make it easier. All I can say is you need to take one tiny little baby step towards God and He will honor that as long as you do it with sincerity. After all, either He’s telling the truth or He isn’t when He says He wants to be your Shepherd and care for you.
It may very well hurt, a lot, and feel really dangerous but take that baby step towards Him today. You’ll find that, just like Arnold swoops down to catch his babies when they are falling and just like Little One’s shepherd always takes care of him and supplies for him, God will always do the same for His “sheep” and “baby eagles”.

Arnold, Little One, thanks for being my teacher today. I feel better now. I’m going to take some time tonight and draw near my Shepherd and let Him love and take care of me.

Good night.