paravanes:meditations

In the middle of graduation parties, wedding anniversaries, and the general celebrations following the end of a school year, I wonder if Father's Day gets its due. Father's Day was last weekend, and my father (Rev. Thomas Evans)passed in April of 2002, so I no longer attach a lot of significance to the rituals of "the day", but I do use this time to reflect on my relationship with my father, and why it continues to be one of the best things in my life. I am one of those people who decorate gravesites--not because I believe the deceased are necessarily looking down and smiling ( but maybe they are )--but because I think of a gravesite as a sacred place, a place from which those who followed Christ will be called at the resurrection of the godly. It doesn't matter to me if that "rising" happens in five years, or five hundred years. It will come. I am grateful for having had a godly--not a perfect--father. The general orientation of someone's life...

In the gospel of John (chapter 10), Jesus Christ describes himself as "The Good Shepherd." Those listening to him speak understood the powerful meaning of the analogy he used. He is the Good Shepherd: the One who never abandons the sheep, the One who leads the sheep daily and hourly, the One who fights off the predators, the One who provides food and care for those in his charge. Despite my best efforts and the kindnesses of others, I am sometimes a wandering sheep. There is no logical reason for my "wanderer" status. I can truthfully say I have never regretted following the directions, teaching, and world-view of Jesus Christ. I cannot recall a time when I was worse off for doing what he wanted. In summary: when there is a conflict, he is always right and I am always wrong. I know this--from Scripture, from observation, and from my own experience. Still, from time to time, I wander. Perhaps it is in the nature of sheep to wander. Sheep are not known as part...