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.
Lambs and Wings 