As it always does, May will bring transition for many of us this year. Graduations and other inevitable changes await us! While we may be aware that the time is ripe for some things to end in order for other new beginnings may start, changes and chances of life can make us a bit weary...

It was to the weary crowds that Jesus spoke words of comfort captured so beautifully in John’s Gospel:

“I am the Good Shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me.”

If Jesus is the Good Shepherd, however, this means that we are the sheep. Sheep are funny creatures!

Sheep absent-mindedly wander away from safety and find themselves stuck in dangerous, precarious situations. They leave pastures of plenty only to find they are hungry, thirsty, and in need of help to find their way home.

If we’re honest, the analogy pretty well! What grace that we have been given a Good Shepherd who knows us... and still loves us. What a grace that our Good Shepherd persistently searches for us and longs to lead us to the green pastures of abundant life we cannot find on our own.

Friends, when the changes of life start to make us weary, may we have the wisdom to walk very closely to the one who known us and calls us by name.

Giulianna+

Jesus, you are the Good Shepherd of your sheep. Grant us your guidance and protection so we who are wearied by the changes and chances of this life may rest in your eternal changelessness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.