A couple thousand years ago, my ancestors painted their bodies blue, wrapped their faces with animal skins, and worshipped trees in the ancient forests of Northern Europe.

Not much different from where I live today in Boulder, Colorado.

Jesus once told a group of Jewish leaders, I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me. At the time, Jesus spent his days gathering the lost sheep of Israel, knowing that beyond their borders a lost and hungry world waited.

So when I hear Jesus go on to say, I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there will be one flock and one shepherd, I believe he had my Celtic ancestors in mind.

Eventually, thanks to people like the Apostle Paul and Saint Patrick and many unnamed others, the gospel spread from Israel to Europe and beyond.

Of course, I’m one of those other sheep as well. Thankfully, the work of Jesus spans the globe and extends throughout time. All of us not present at the time of Jesus’s teaching reap the benefits.

The good shepherd gathers his sheep from all around the world with this promise: I have come that they might have life, and have it to the full.

And so today, like my pagan forefathers, many will hear his voice, choose to leave the way of the thief, and follow the Good Shepherd.

John 10 in week forty-four of reading the Bible cover to cover

Photo by Andrew Shelley