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| A MODERN SHEPHERD |
| What a "good shepherd" would look like today. |
| "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." 10:10 |
| Some of the Bible's rural illustrations simply do not transfer easily into modern life. What is a "good shepherd" like? What did Jesus mean by the term? A small drama that took place on the slopes of Washington's Mount Rainier may shed light on the meaning of the "good shepherd." One Memorial Day weekend a Christian dentist named James Reddick was teaching his 12-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son the joy of mountain hiking. A sudden storm came up, battering them with hurricane-force winds and thick, wet sheets of snow. A blinding "whiteout" made it impossible to see or move on the steep slopes. Willing to Die Reddick laboriously dug an oblong trench with an aluminum mess kit, then ticked his children into sleeping bags away from the entrance. He covered the opening with a tarp, but it kept blowing away, exposing the trench to the swirling snow outside. Reddick found he had to lie directly across the opening, using his own weight to hold down the edges of the tarp. His body protected his son and daughter from the howling wind. Two days passed before searchers finally noticed the corner of a backpack protruding from deep snow. They rushed to the site, hoping the snow-covered mound would contain the three missing hikers. Inside, they found Sharon and David Reddick, very much alive. But the stiff body of their father lay against one wall of the snow cave. He had "taken the cold spot," in one searcher's words, by using his own back as the outer wall. An image of something like that must have filled the minds of Jesus' listeners as he described a good shepherd who "lays down his life" fo rhis sheep (10:11). Nothing - not ravaging cold, thieves, or wolves - would come between the good |