
I have a big red blister on my heel from my trainers where I’ve been trying to hit my 10,000 steps today. Here’s the thing… I start my walks with a hill, a big uphill. There’s one thing you should know and that is I can walk for miles on the flat but hills just kill me so I usually avoid them at all costs, I either find another route or I simply take the car. HATE. THOSE. HILLS.
It has struck me, I have for years enjoyed the freedom to avoid those hills, I can choose my route or mode of transport to avoid walking up them…..but is this really freedom? The freedom surely rests in my ability to stride up them without struggling or getting hot and sweaty so my choice of route is not based on a restriction but on a FREE choice.
I am the gate.
Anyone who enters through me will be safe:
he will go freely in and out
and be sure of finding pasture.
When our great shepherd created the world he had several choices it seems to me. Being all knowing and outside of time he would have been able to foresee the outcome of each choice, unlike you or I.
Choice 1.. He could have seen how the leaning towards evil would take over the hearts of much of his creation and think, well…too much trouble, too much anguish, pain and disobedience, let’s just not bother and leave things as they are. Lets keep heaven tidy….ahhh but what to do with this abundance of love we have here, what do we do with that?
Choice 2…We create the earth and man, but we make them unable to sin. Each time I ask them “do you love me?” They will always reply “yes, Lord” and they would only ever want to do my will….ahhh but this love will be worthless since they have no choice but do that.
Choice 3.. We create the earth and man, but we give them the right to choose. We give them the freedom to love or not, to sin or not. I will have to send my son to die a horrible death, I wIll have deep grief in my heart for those that don’t want to come into my fold, but for each small glance heavenward I will be filled with joy.
So our Shepherd chose option 3. He didn’t just make that choice for all of creation, he made that choice for you and for me, that even knowing every bum choice you make, every time his heart breaks because of you, it was worth breathing life into you for the chance you just might come to love him. It is personal.
We spend so much time thinking our choice to pray or worship is for us, but it is also to gladden the heart of the one who brought us into being.
He stands at that gate, day in day out, we wander in and out at will. While he waits, truly I think in a chosen vulnerability for us to use our freedom for him. Our God is not a disinterested “take your pick” gatekeeper, that is surely the role of a hired shepherd. No the one guarding our pasture knows each bleat from his lambs more surely than we know our own cry.
My freedom comes from knowing that he will lead me to the greenest grass, even when other pastures look more appealing. My freedom comes from the choice to lean in to hear his voice so that even when I’m lost I will always find my way home.