Thought for the Day - Tuesday 5 May

Thought for the Day – Tuesday 5^th May

Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep and doesn’t know where to find them.

Leave them alone and they will come home bringing their tails behind them.

Not such a good shepherd or shepherdess was Little Bo Peep!

However, what about those sheep they have their part to play in this story too!

They have forgotten just who was responsible for their safety, for their protection, for finding them food and water and have taken their eyes off their shepherd, they have decided to go and play in their own way – do their own thing, they have forgotten to follow their leader, and so have gone astray!!

‘All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned to our own way.’

So says Isaiah 53 v 6 and really in a way if we are Jesus’ flock – if we are his sheep, then sometimes we are like the sheep in this nursery rhyme for at times we too take our eyes off our ‘Good Shepherd’. We decide to go our own way, we think we can handle things on our own, we forget to take everything to our Lord in prayer, we turn our backs on the very one who is always there for us night and day longing to protect us, to keep us safe from harm, to nourish us that we might have abundant life in him.

Thankfully though, like Little Bo Peep’s sheep even though we have strayed we have the assurance that we can always come home bringing our tails behind us!

For as it says in 1 Peter 2 vs 24-25: ‘He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.’

Prayer

Loving Shepherd,

All of us are like sheep who have gone astray, we have not loved you with our whole heart, we have taken our eyes from you and wandered along our own path in life, we have not been mindful of your care and protection and have relied on our own strength to get us through difficult times, we have not loved our neighbours as ourselves.

Gracious Lord, we are truly sorry for straying too far from you, forgive us and bring us back to you our ‘Good Shepherd’ and the guardian of our souls. In your name we pray. Amen.