The Gate and the Pen

Jesus emphatically states that he is the gate to the sheep pen. What does He exactly mean by that? In my own life, I believe I’ve come to understand what Jesus means when he says we can come in and come out of the sheep pen and find pleasant pastures. In Psalm 16 , God has promised that the lines will fall in pleasant places.  We will have a good inheritance. Other versions of the same scripture says the boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places, and I have a pleasant inheritance. Both versions suggest that it is God who holds and maintains on lots.

It is God who chooses our relationships, our families, the very parameters of our existence. To be at peace with this truth, one must inherently believe God's intentions toward us are indeed good. There, our lives begin and end: the very parameters or boundaries of the lines of our existence are set because of God’s inherent goodness and love for us. We must believe as Psalm 145:17 God states that God is loving in all of his ways and is kind in all that he does. If we doubt this central fact, we will not be pleased with the boundaries that God sets for us. Instead, we will be typically angry, resentful, and fearful.

Jesus as the Good Shepherd serves as the gate that allows us to go in and go out freely. Begin to reflect on the fact that God offers us the freedom to come in and to go out of the  pen at our own discretion. God gave us free will but also the rules we need to protect ourselves.  The wall in the sheep pen is there to protect us.  In terms of our emotions, the  gate allows others access to our hearts and our emotions. As we open the gate, we allow people to know our intimate thoughts, but in order to gain entrance, a person must first pass through the gate who is Jesus. Hopefully, we will allow Jesus to be the gatekeeper he wishes to be and allow only things and people who decides to enter inside of our hearts for He has best interests at heart.

A Fellow Sheep,

MJ