HTML clipboard Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27, RSV).

I read how an American, traveling in Syria, saw three native shepherds bring their flocks to the same brook, and the flock drank there together. After a while one of the shepherds called out, “Men-ah! Men-ah!” The Arabic for “follow me.” All of his sheep left the common herd and followed him up the hillside. The next shepherd did the same, and his sheep followed him — without his even bothering to count them.

The traveler asked the remaining shepherd if he could put on his shepherd’s cloak and take his crook, to see if they would follow him. He did this and called out, “Men-ah! Men-ah!” Not one sheep followed him. They didn’t know his voice.

“Will your flock never follow anybody but you?” He asked the shepherd, to which the man replied, “Oh, yes; sometimes a sheep gets sick, and then he will follow anyone.”

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank you that you know me, love me, and care for me as the Good Shepherd. Grant that I will always know your voice and follow you and never the voice of a stranger. Gratefully in Jesus’ name. Amen.”

By Dick Innes, Daily Encounter www.actsweb.org/detoday . Used by permission.