What is my Shepherd doing?

While visiting a sheep ranch in Northern Wales, Christian author Elisabeth Elliott watched shepherds placing their sheep into vats filled with an antiseptic solution to kill deadly parasites and insects. The process required submerging the sheep several times. As you might expect, the fearful sheep resisted, desperately trying to escape the vats. Elisabeth shares that she wondered if the sheep were thinking, “Is my shepherd, who has always cared for me, now trying to kill me?”

I must confess, I can identify with those sheep! Sometimes it may seem as if our Good Shepherd is trying to kill us, when He’s really trying to heal us and save us. Like the sheep, we wonder “how can this possibly be for my good?” But we can learn to trust and surrender to the plan of a God who loves us and works things together for our good.