Lent 2021 (Day 1): Reconciliation-Returning to The Shepherd’s Path.

Lent is all about returning to God, which begs the question, where did we go? Or better still, where did we go wrong? The ability to return is as much a function of knowing where or how we veered off The Shepherd’s Path as it is of desiring to re-enter the fold.

“The Lord is my Shepherd—– He leads me”, are the words from Psalm 23 that we like to remind God when we desire protection. They imply a follow of the Shepherd and keeping in line while following. The veering off from The Shepherds’s Path could be deliberate after much thought, careless out of a sense of adventure, or just plainly erroneous-a genuine mistake.

Whichever way we fall off-track, reconciliation demands we realize that we went out of the leading of The Shepherd and requires that we feel remorse for that choice. Luckily for us, the Mediator of our reconciliation to our heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, once lived among us and understands our weaknesses.

He came among us without sin and took the burden of our sins upon Himself in an extremely painful manner, just so that we can be clothed in His dazzling righteousness and reconciled to His Father. Having gone through all that for us, He and His Father are always waiting with open arms for us to return to The Shepherd’s Path.

Once we realize we are off-path, express genuine remorse for our choices, and indicate a desire to return to the fold, we are back in His grace. The Holy Spirit will then continually enlighten us that being reconciled to God does not only mean being welcomed back into the fold but also, being reconciled to His ways, His Gospel, His character, His attributes and His plans for us….and if we surrender our thoughts to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, He will help us not to foolishly wander away again from all the benefits of the above.

May divine goodness and mercy follow us all the days of our lives as we return to The Shepherd’s Path with a fresh resolve to follow it and flourish on it, by ensuring our eyes are laser-trained on The Shepherd and ears open to His instructions. May we not fall to the distractions of the world and the wolves on the left and right. Amen.