GROWING SEEDS: The Choice Is Ours

 

"My sheep listen to My voice; I know them and they follow me. 
I give them eternal life and they will never perish. 
No one can snatch them away from me,
for My Father has given them to Me and He is more powerful than anyone else." 
John 10:27-29

Chuck and I have always loved to visit a place called Ouray, Colorado, located in the western-most part of Colorado.  The mountains are taller, the sky is bluer and there is just something amazingly special about this little slice of heaven on earth.  Ouray is on the eastern side of a large mountain from the town of Telluride and one of the most famous (and exciting!) ways to get from Ouray to Telluride is through a muddy dirt path called Black Bear Pass. 

This path is narrow, winding, rocky and quite dangerous.  You need a 4-wheel drive and nerves of steel to take it.  But if you choose to go this route....this difficult, treacherous and often scary trail..... you will see beauty your eyes have never seen before.  You will pass waterfalls and fields of wildflowers and clean, thin mountain air.

You will pass sheepherders with thousands of sheep covering the sides of the mountain.  You will see how a good sheepherder will be ahead of his sheep.....not behind them.....and when he turns right, they turn right; when he stops, they stop.  Most follow him because they trust him.....they know his voice when he calls out to them and they know he will not lead them off the side of a mountain to sure death.

But some.....yes there are some.....who step outside the safety of the sheepherder and find their own path.  They willfully stray from the flock and choose to leave the shepherd and the sheepfold. 

And just know, my fellow sheep, there is a difference between being "snatched away" by the force of another and choosing free will.....choosing to live in the world instead of in God our Shepherd who guides us to water, on safe paths and ultimately, to our Home.  We were given a gift at Easter......wrapped up tight in white linen and layed in a tomb with all our sins attached to it.  We were given a choice of resting eternally from our strenuous journey up the mountain or sure-death by taking our own path.

The choice is ours.