I Peter 2:25

     For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

     Peter compares us to sheep.  Sheep are not smart.  They roam about looking to eat having little ability at all to look out for their own safety.  People are supposed to be smart, but we tend to live on the same shallow plane as dumb sheep and just live for forage and fun, frolic and food, having no ability at all to look out for our own eternal safety.  People came to Jesus by the thousand, but often they only came to Him for food (John 6:26), and when they did, He pitied them, because they looked like sheep (Mark 6:34).  When we as men and women live only for fun and food, we act “like sheep going astray.”  We miss the high calling that God has placed on our lives and live with our face to the ground like ignorant sheep.  But oh the joy that is ours when we come to our senses and “have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer” of our souls.  Look!  Our Shepherd calls us and keeps us!  He leads us in the way that protects our soul forever!  We could hardly hope for a more comforting thought to cheer us in hard times than David’s reminder that, “The Lord is my Shepherd (Psalm 23:1).”  How do we respond to the love and protection and guidance of our Shepherd?   David shows us what good sheep do: “Come let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.  For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand (Psalm 95:6-7).”  We are sheep and the Creator of the universe is our Shepherd!  He is ever near us, tender with us, protects us, and watches over our souls.  Let us then return to Him!  Let us turn from merely filling our bellies and return our attention to the Shepherd.  We will find that His attention has always been on us.    As we worship Him we will lose all desire to ever go astray again.  We are sheep, but we need not live like foolish sheep.  We can lift our eyes to our Shepherd, kneel and bow down before Him and worship, rejoicing that He is the Overseer of our souls.