Optimist Roundtable 4/8
By Martha Sykes
Numbers play a big part in our lives in this present day world we live in! Since it is income tax season, that is a true exercise in numbers. Pages upon pages of numerical information that we send off to the IRS, contains our social security number. To the IRS, we are just a number. In the state we live in, we are tracked by our Driver’s License number, which also now involves our new ID card!! At the bank we are identified by our account number, and it goes on and on. It makes us wonder if anyone knows who we really are without a number attached.
In the gospel of John, chapter 10, it reminds us that God knows us as we read verses 22-42, just as a shepherd knows his sheep.In spite of the fact that the image of sheep and shepherd is not very familiar to our experience, the words in this passage remind us of a truth that we need to hear. Of course in the familiar Psalm 23, we know the words, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want”. In John, Jesus tells us, “My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give them eternal life.”
Everything around us seems to be falling apart, but the good news in this gospel lesson is that we are known by God, not by a number, but by who we are and by our name, but most importantly, we are loved by God. And He will never abandon us!! In spite of the senseless violence that seems to be so much a part of our world today, God wants us to know that He loves us and He cares about us.God wants us to know that He loves us with an everlasting love that calls us by name.That is the promise that God made to us from the beginning of time and that Jesus makes to us every day as we remember His words, “I know my own, and my own know me”. We are more than just a number.
In the midst of an uncertain world faced with unknown dangers, diseases, and unpredictable events of evil and violence all around us, we are known and loved by an awesome God.For God is greater than anything that can threaten us in this life. The death and resurrection of Jesus assure us of that, and the words of Jesus remind us of that. That is why the words of Jesus mean so much to us when He says, “I am the Good Shepherd. My sheep hear my voice and I know that they follow me and I give them eternal life”. With a shepherd like Jesus to lead us, His voice to call us to follow Him, every day, we can know that to God we are not just a number. We are all loved by God, He is our great shepherd, and we can respond to His voice.
