“During the Palestinian uprising in the late 1980s the Israeli army decided to punish a village near Bethlehem (he doesn’t name the village – I wonder if it was Beit Jala, where we have connections?)
The officer in command rounded up all of the village animals and placed them in a large barbed-wire pen.
Later in the week he was approached by a woman who begged him to release her flock, arguing that since her husband was dead, the animals were her only source of livelihood.
He pointed to the pen containing hundreds of animals and humorously quipped that it was impossible because he could not find her animals.
She asked that if she could in fact separate them herself, would he be willing to let her take them? He agreed.
A soldier opened that gate and the woman’s son produced a small reed flute.
He played a simple tune again and again - - and soon sheep heads began popping up across the pen.
The young boy continued his music and walked home, followed by his flock of twenty-five sheep.
To accept that Jesus is the Good Shepherd means that we pop up our heads, catch the timbre of his voice, or recognize the tune he is playing, and get ourselves behind him, wherever he leads.
This means paying attention to God’s voice, as we hear it through Jesus, first of all and above all the other voices that are seeking our attention and allegiance.
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