Green Pastures
“He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters.” Psalm 23:2
When I was a child, my parents often took my siblings and I along to different sheep farms for shearings. As a fiber artist, my mom was particularly interested in picking out fleeces to take home and spin into yarn, and my dad liked talking with the sheep farmers. I, however, being a little terrified of unpredictable animals such as sheep and sheepdogs, and a little more terrified of a roomful of random strangers, would sometimes go out into the puddly gravel parking lot to play with my brother, or else just huddle under a blanket in the car and read.
What I remember the most about those sheep farms—apart from the biting cold and rain of early Spring and the sounds and smells of the warm barn where the sheep were sheared—is the view of rolling hills and wide open spaces of grassy fields. Even in the mists and drizzle and mud of an early spring day, the vast green of those fields captivated me. The trips to the sheep farms were welcome relief from the dull, grimy gray of city streets and buildings.
But those fields served a greater purpose than to provide a beautiful view. Sheep need those “green pastures” in order to feed and be healthy. The shepherd knows which field to lead the sheep to each day, what kinds of plants the sheep need for food, and also what dangers to keep the sheep away from as they graze, like weeds that would be toxic to the sheep. A good shepherd knows his fields.
That is how it is with our Good Shepherd. He knows what pasture we need to be in and how long we need to be there. He knows the toxic weeds planted along the way by our enemies, the world the flesh, and the Devil. And He is faithful to lead us past the poisonous plants and worthless stubble of the world’s fields, and into the richness of His green pastures.
The heart of our Shepherd to provide for His sheep can be seen in Christ’s words in Matthew 6:26:
“Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?”
While this passage speaks to the faithfulness of our Shepherd to provide us with physical food, perhaps an even more significant truth is that He also nourishes us spiritually. Food is a necessary part of life, but the closeness of our relationship with God is more important even than the health of our physical body.
The Hebrew word translated “green” in this verse comes from a root that means to sprout, or grow. Our Shepherd does not lead us to dry, shriveled pastures, but to fields bright with the vibrance and fragrance of new life and thriving growth.
Our walk with the Shepherd is meant to be ever fresh, ever growing. This only happens as we immerse ourselves in the Word of God. 1 Peter 2:2 says,
“As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.”
Whatever your pasture looks like today, be assured that your Shepherd only leads you where fresh, nourishing grass is to be found—even if it’s not in where you would have chosen to be. No matter where God leads us in life, we can be assured that He knows what He is doing, and that it is for our good. As Romans 8:28 reminds us,
“But we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.”
Our pastures don’t seem very green to us at times, and those are precisely the times when God builds our faith, if we are only willing to trust His leading and stay close to Him.
Dear Reader, what pastures does God have you feeding in today? Will you choose to trust Him and look to Him to nourish your soul?
“Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.” Psalm 37:3