For the first part of my childhood, my family lived in Chicago. It was always an exciting time for my brother and sister and I when our parents would take us to downtown Chicago, especially during the weeks leading up to Christmas. Marshall Fields was a huge department store filled with all sorts of exotic sights and smells. I would suppose for most who are young, the experience I had of Marshall Fields department store would be like going to the Mall of America for the very first time. There was so much to see and so much of it just filled a kid like me with wonder. The overwhelming scents coming from the perfume counter area alone could nearly knock a person out. However, for a five year old kid, the best part of that department store at Christmas was the vast area devoted only to toys.
The toy section consisted of aisles upon aisles of toys of all kinds. A kid could wander the toy section of the store for several hours and never see the entirety of what was displayed there. I remember as a five year old kid being mesmerized by all that was on display. After being in the toy section for a while, my mother told me it was time to leave and follow her and go look for clothes. Ugh! There is nothing more boring in the world for a 5 year old kid than to go shopping for clothes. I heard my mother’s voice, but the Siren’s call of the toys was stronger. They called out to me, “Come back, come back!” I made like I was following my mother, and then circled back into the toy section.
After some time had passed, I thought I had better go and find my mother. What I had not counted on in my great plan was that in a store as big and vast as Marshall Fields filled with busy Christmas shoppers, all who were at least 2 or 3 feet taller than I, trying to find my mother in that huge crowd was going to be impossible. I wandered around calling for my mother. “Mom, where are you?” I called out. It hadn’t occurred to me that there was more than one woman who answered to the name, “Mom.” I couldn’t see her anywhere and I was getting very scared. I was lost in a huge store, in a huge city, surrounded by grownups, and had no way of knowing how I was ever going to get home to my family.
What I didn’t know was my mother missed me right away and knew exactly where I was. She decided that a good lesson in obedience needed to be taught, and withdrew from me, keeping me in eyesight, but letting me sweat out my huge mistake. When I was on the verge of panic, she finally answered my call, and I ran to her. I was so very grateful and hugged her waist tightly (remember I was a little kid, then). For the rest of the day I was so close to her, you would swear I was stuck to her with super glue.
On any given day, we listen to many voices. Do we pay attention to the voice of the Good Shepherd who calls out to us? In that department store many years ago, instead of listening to my mother, I chose to listen to the voices of all those toys beckoning to me. The sight and the sounds of all those toys bedazzled me luring me further and further from my mother to the point that I became completely lost, alone in a vast crowd of people, and scared to death. Just as I ignored the voice of my mother telling me to follow her in that department store, do we tend to shut out the voice of the Good Shepherd and follow other voices? And at those times when we do so, do we also find ourselves lost and scared?
There are many voices in the world luring us away from Jesus. There is the vast wasteland of imagined wealth that beckons to us, promising us riches and fame and security. There are those who hold themselves up as political Messiahs making all sorts of promises, promises based on nothing but air, with no guarantee of fulfillment. There are the voices of self-gratification, promising to titillate all of our senses, all of it just another fantasy among many, and no more. All of these voices invade our lives through television commercials, radio, emails, the vast world wide web, all telling us what to do and how to live. Where is the Good Shepherd amidst all of this noise, this cacophony of sound?
Like a mother keeping an eye on her lost, disobedient son, Jesus is always near, ready to call out and save us as we get lost. In the midst of the chaos and panic of our lives, Jesus calls for us to just turn around. As we do so, we find that he has been there all along just waiting for us to find him. All we can do then is to embrace him in gratitude, and be thankful to be safe and sound once more.
Jesus is the only sure thing in our lives, the only sure thing on which we can count. The rest of the world is just all smoke and mirrors and nothing more. Just as a mother loves her children to death and never abandons them, so Jesus does not abandon us even if we abandon him, for we are precious in the heart of our loving God. It is the hand of God who created us in love and shaped us, and who has given us to the care of the beloved, Jesus, who is the Son of God, the Good Shepherd. As the beloved of our God, Jesus offers us more than what the world can offer us. Jesus gives to us eternal life and happiness. All we need to do is to listen to his voice and follow him.
