I Know My Own

"I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me." -John 10:14

Let me start by saying that I am NOT a country girl. Anyone who knows me knows the country life is not the life for me. I enjoy being outside, I enjoy camping, fishing, and riding four wheelers, but I couldn't do it every single day. But I've always been fascinated when the Bible says Jesus is our shepherd and we, His children, are His sheep. I think that's the coolest thing. Why? I'm not sure. It might be because I grew up in a very rural area. Farming, 4-H, animal showing, rodeos, and the fair is what a lot of Vilonia High School kids talked about so I somewhat understood the importance of a shepherd and I definitely understood how important the sheep were (especially if that was the source of their income).

Around January of my junior year of high school (about 3 years ago), my parents decided to buy some land and build their dream home. Little did I know that in the three years since, that would lead to about ten acres, dogs, cats, chickens, goats, and hay bales. 

So here's the point: the goats. We only have two goats: Goldilocks and Commodore (my 4 and 6 year old nieces named them). Only two of them and I still get them confused sometimes. There are distinct differences between the two goats, but sometimes I just overlook the differences and call them the wrong name. But anyone in the family who takes care of those two or goes to play with them knows the difference. We can be driving down the driveway and my sister can look out and say "Oh there's Goldilocks on top of their house" or "Commodore is laying down by the fence". It's crazy to me how they can just look out there and know which is which. So a lot of times I get frustrated because I get the goats confused. It's silly because there's only two of them and I have such a difficult time. 

As I was living my house to move back into my dorm room after Christmas break, I felt frustrated with myself because once again, I got the goats confused. So as I was driving I kept thinking about how dumb the whole thing was. I was literally getting upset because I confused two animals who were clearly different from each other. And that's when it hit me. I was thinking about being Christ's sheep. To me, all sheep look the exact same. I could not tell a difference between two. But God does. In fact, His flock consists of WAY more than just two (unlike my two goats), and He still sees me. But not only does He see me, He sees the millions of differences that make me different from His other sheep. Whoa. He looks at me and knows me. He knows what He's equipped me with and what He's called me to. He looks at the sheep next to me and knows them. He thinks about His sheep that aren't born yet and knows every detail of their life. That blows my mind. Out of the millions of people on this Earth, God knows each of us. He knows our intimate details, He knows our struggles, He knows our heart's deepest desires and He knows that for every single one of His sheep. When the world looks at us and tells us you're just the same as everyone else, God calls out to us and tells us we aren't. We are His. We are different. We are special. We are set apart. God looks at us, He looks at me, and says "I know you because I know my own." Wow. That's incredibly humbling. The Creator of the entire universe looks at me and knows me completely.

Man. What a mighty God we serve.