The Good Shepherd
We haven't had a Holy Picture for a while, so I thought I'd delve into the collection today and bring you this gorgeous image of the Good Shepherd.
Now, many of you will know that I regularly attend the Metropolitan Community Church of the Good Shepherd, so the Good Shepherd is a particularly resonant and meaningful image for me.
I've always loved this image of Christ as a shepherd, and of course it was particularly meaningful to his contemporaries, many of whom raised sheep and had worked as shepherds. Now I know that a lot of you out there would resent being cast as mindless sheep being ministered to by an all-powerful master possessed of a big stick, and I can totally understand that objection. But the Bible reminds us that the Shepherd would die in order to protect his beautiful and innocent sheep, and I am more comfortable with that.
And who couldn't love the 23rd Psalm, which reminds us that if a shepherd is looking out for us, we shall always be protected and provided for?
And don't get me going on the exquisite imagery of the Agnus Dei, or I will be in raptures for days.
Comments