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From a Nobody to Someone Important.

The good shepherd, in addition to bringing the sheep to verdant pastures, leading them to safe water instead of the dangerous desert wadi, setting the table before enemies who want your lunch money, and leading you through the dark valley, the shepherd also anoints your head with oil. What does that mean? The good shepherd makes the sheep important. The most important people of Israel were anointed. Priests were anointed, prophets were anointed, and most especially, kings were anointed. The good shepherd takes unimportant people and turns them into great value.

When I was young, my father purchased a property with a big field. Instead of mowing, he bought a cow. It was a great idea. He could turn a few seasons of grass clippings into nice steaks. Here was the problem. He had five little boys. We would wave to the cow, then name the cow, pat the cow, we hugged the cow, and then we could not eat the cow. Dad’s five young shepherds turned the lawnmower into the family pet. That is what good shepherds do. They make ordinary extraordinary.

I mention this because Jesus took His disciples to recharge the batteries. Just as they got out of the boat on their secret getaway, a crowd shows up there. When He saw them, He referred to them as sheep without a shepherd. Sheep wandering without a shepherd means that they had no value in the world. They were nobodies. They did not contribute to society due to poverty, lack of education, or illness and disease. Jesus fed them, cured the sick among them, and gave them instructions. Christ gave them everything they needed to become important with bread, healing, and teaching. He made them important.

Mary, who lived in Nazareth, was a nobody. She even tells us this in her “Magnificat.” God, the Good Shepherd, sent an angel, and Mary became the mother of God, the queen of the universe, and blessed among all women. Peter was a first-century fisherman–a nobody. Yet, today, not one person born in the last two thousand years does not know of his legacy. Christ took ordinary people and made them special.

We are a dot on a timeline, a speck in the universe.  We are insignificant, yet God changes our lives because that is what a good shepherd does.

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