“…his Gospel is the one that introduces us to Elizabeth and Zechariah, gives us the Magnificat and the Bethlehem birth narrative, and shares the prophesies of Simeon and Anna.”
Sometimes I worry that in the church, we pay too much attention to statistics and focus groups and expert opinions at the expense of simply looking at the people involved.
The Gospel authors had met Jesus only in verbal accounts, only through others who knew people who had known him. And yet, like a buried priceless treasure, they found him, recognized him as their beloved, acknowledged him as the one for whom their souls had always yearned.
But here’s the problem with walls: as much as we think they keep “undesirable” people out, they also keep the fortunate ones penned in. In the end, both are in a cage. And even a cage of your own making is still a cage.
Find that shepherd place in you, the place open to wonder. Listen, now, listen with the heart of a shepherd.
Each of us is a patient presenting ourselves before the Great Physician–sometimes we need deep healing, sometimes we merely want to vent, and sometimes, we’re simply not sure what’s wrong with us and desire for more to be revealed.