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.

Hi, Little One.

I can tell you’re excited today, Little One. Is it because your friend, Arnold, is coming for a visit? What kind of eagle is Arnold? Do you know, Little One? I guess it really doesn’t matter, does it? Here he is! Let’s go and say “hello”.

Hello, Arnold! We’re so glad to see you! It’s kind of cold and rainy here today, isn’t it? Does that kind of weather bother you? No? Oh, I know why! You can fly above the rain and clouds where it’s always sunny and clear?

Little One, do you think Arnold ever gets tired of flapping his wings all the time to stay up in the air? Do you, Arnold? Why not? Is it because the air currents can carry you and you just spread your wings and trust them? Is that why you can stay in the air for so long without getting tired?

I know you prefer to make your nest on top of high places like rock outcroppings. That lets you use those air currents to your advantage, doesn’t it?

Friend, did you listen to the Youtube song in the last post? I thought of Arnold when I was listening to that song. Air currents can carry eagles and help them stay aloft so they don’t have to flap their wings all the time and tire themselves out. God can carry you. You don’t have to tire yourself out trying to keep yourself up. Or busy. Or keeping everything together. Or smiling. Or, whatever. Let God carry you. Trust Him like Arnold trusts the air currents.

I’m doing that right now. I’m tired and would rather relax but God has given me a task to do in writing this post and as I’m obedient, the words are coming and my fingers are moving over the keyboard faster than normal. He’s carrying me! All I have to do is trust Him and obey.

Trust yourself to Him today, my friend!

Hello, Little One.

The sun is going down. Soon, your shepherd will be gathering you and the rest of the flock into the fold for the night where you can safely lie down and sleep.

Are you standing on a hill right now and looking back over the path your shepherd led you on today? Did you realize how far you actually came today? Did you notice that your shepherd was always with you? Did you see him fight one of your enemies?

Friend, the sun is going down. Are you standing on a hill, so to speak, and looking back at your path today? Does it seem to you that you made no progress at all today? Or are you surprised at how far you actually came today?

I look back at my path today and I’m kind of surprised at how far I came today. I encountered an enemy of temptation today and was afraid but my Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ, rescued me.

Maybe you ran into an enemy of temptation today and it defeated you. I have some good news for you. The Lord Jesus has overcome for you. Today’s defeat doesn’t have to be any more than temporary for you.

Have you been defeated so many times or so badly that you’re too tired to try again or don’t think it’s worth the effort?

One of the things a shepherd does with his staff is use it to pull a stuck sheep back to safety. Tell the Lord Jesus how you are feeling tonight and let Him pull you back to safety.

There’s a song that really encourages me. In fact, the worship team at my church seems to sing it every time I’m feeling defeated and it helps me keep going. Here is a link to listen to it on YouTube. Please listen to it. I hope it encourages you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1bXG4WIesA

Little One, there’s a beautiful full moon tonight. The Bible says everything that has breath should praise the Lord. Friend, that includes you and me. Let’s praise our Shepherd Creator for His work!

 Good night, my friend. Good night, Little One. Sleep well.

Well, Little One, how do you like your new pasture? I think you’re going to be happy here. Your shepherd has brought you to a place with fresh, green grass to eat, still water to drink and room to grow. See those trees behind you? They’re nice and tall. I think Arnold will like them. Who’s Arnold? I hope you and Arnold will become good friends here in this new pasture. I can see you’re happy. You’re jumping for joy at your new home. (If you go back to the picture on the title page of this blog, you will see Little One on the far right, jumping for joy.)

Our Shepherd does that with His flock, too, Little One. Sometimes He moves us to different pastures. We may not like to move. We may not like the trip there. But we can always trust that our Shepherd knows what is best for His sheep and will take good care of them.

What about you, my friend? Do you know this Shepherd? Do you trust him as Little One trusts his shepherd? Possibly the most famous verse in the Bible, John 3:16, tells us how we can know this Shepherd. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Will you believe this Shepherd and meet Him by faith right now?