Resting in green pastures

By Jennifer Moreno

You’ve probably heard that scripture that says ” The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters, He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.” (Ps. 23:2). Well, God uses lambs as a metaphor to show that we are the lambs and he uses the Shepherd to represent Him as our leader.

If you’ve ever noticed the behavior of lambs, you would know that they are pretty social animals and when one sheep moves, the rest follow, even if they don’t know where they are going. Not only that, they’re pretty easy prey; sounds familiar right? We humans need to be codependent on Jesus Christ, we need Him to be our Shepherd and lead us on the right path.

Now though lambs are not the brightest crayons in the box, they do have special qualities about them that set them apart from other animals. Lambs have pretty good sight and hearing, they’re always very curious and social. Also in order for them to be healthy, they must rest. Everything must be right in order for them to sleep. They can only sleep when they’re not hungry, when there is no tension in the flock, no predators around. They solely rely on their Shepherd to find them this place of rest.

So where am I going with this? Basically in order for us to be healthy we must rest and slow down. God wants to bring us rest to our mind, body and soul, He wants to lead us to green pastures and for that to happen we must follow Him and trust where He leads us. Because I promise the path He has for us is the truth, the way and the life.

If we keep our eyes on the Shepherd then we will be able to finally find that peace and rest in our lives in every sense of the word. “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You.” (Isa. 26:3)

So no wonder God uses this comparison of us being the lamb and Him being the Shepherd. Shepherds are the ones who select the trail and prepares the pastures. The work is finished and the lambs lie down in perfect peace. It gives the Shepherd great gladness and satisfaction to see his flock resting. So imagine the satisfaction God receives when we do the same.

So next time you’re anxious, sad, angry or feeling depressed, just keep your eyes on the Shepherd and let Him lead you to green pastures.

God bless everyone!