The Good Shepherd

Today in church my eyes rested on a painting of the Good Shepherd rescuing a sheep. I could hear the Holy Spirit say “But He wasn’t a shepherd; He was a carpenter”. This was an odd way to look at the depiction of Jesus, yet I knew that his vocation had been carpentry, and then He went into ministry.

In Jesus’ parables He used the analogy of the Shepherd because it captured the nature of nurturing and caring for people. He couldn’t illustrate this concept with carpentry, therefore we have no parable about the Good Carpenter. Carpentry is what He did. He also tends to us and feeds us like a Shepherd cares for His sheep. This caring is who He is.

Jesus is both Carpenter and Shepherd, and so much more. What He is in our lives may be seen in our work, and in our relationships with others. I believe that the Holy Spirit wants to point out that we should not find our identity in what we do; it is found in who we are. We won’t be remembered for how wonderfully we built a chair, or taught a math class. But we will be remembered by those whose lives have been changed by His life in us.