He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
he refreshes my soul. (Psalms 23:2, 3) (NIV)
Our family had a kite and we flew it in California’s Yosemite Valley. We reclined in a sun-filled meadow and felt the yellow aerobat tug into the blue. The world’s madness disappeared behind waving grass, contented oaks, and granite sentries.
Then we discovered a secret beach. A kaleidoscope of greens danced in the river, while birch trees dipped their rooty toes in the water. Behind grasslands with the color variations of a mango, a waterfall cavorted like a playful billy goat.
It seemed that deadlines and worries were unable to live on Yosemite’s crystalline air.
By trusting my Shepherd, I can lie in interior pastures far greener and by waters much quieter than those in Yosemite. Jesus calls me to a stress free life. I am to heed heaven’s music and tune out the nonsense of the world.
The Gospels repeatedly tell how Jesus ignored the placations of Nicodemus, the evasions of the woman at the well, and the accusations of the Pharisees. He jumped directly to conversations of wholeness. He lives within the peace of God, and he invites us to bask there with him.
There’s no need for constant dialogue about what went wrong in the past, or how we’ll make it in the future, or a thousand other needless anxieties. Nine-tenths of what the world has to say has no bearing on my true existence. I glance at social media out of pity, but I must not allow mankind’s fears to reach me. I’m in a green meadow of provision and by a quiet stream of love, and the name of both of them is Jesus.
Prayer: Jehovah Rohi (The Lord Our Shepherd), make my heart a quiet place.