Carried in His Bosom
What a safe, warm, happy shelter the dear little lamb in our picture has found, has it not? Gathered close to the heart of the good, kind shepherd, carried tenderly in his loving arms, what can it want or fear?
So long as it is in his bosom, nothing can harm it. If the storm should beat, it is safely sheltered; if the wolf should come, it is hidden where he cannot get it, and the shepherd is strong to protect it; and it will not hunger or thirst, for food and drink are sure to be provided for it. All it has to do is to rest, and be happy, and love the good shepherd, who cares for it so tenderly.
Look well at the picture, and then we will see what the Lord Jesus wants us to learn from it. For He uses the way in which the shepherd cares for his sheep, and carries the lambs in his bosom, to show how He cares for His own “little flock.”
He calls Himself, “The Good Shepherd,” and He is called also the “Chief Shepherd,” and the “Great Shepherd of the sheep.” But who are His flock? We will let His own Word answer this question for us: “We are . . . the sheep of His pasture.” And again: “Ye My flock, the flock of My pasture, are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord of hosts.”
So that He says about His flock—His sheep—is for us, and this is what His Word says: “He shall feed His flock like a shepherd; He shall gather the lambs with Him arm, and carry them in His bosom.”
Did you know that you are being carried in the Lord’s bosom? Think what a difference it would make to the little lamb in the shepherd’s arms if it did not know where it was. Suppose it should think that it was in the clutches of the hungry, cruel wolf, or about to be devoured by the roaring lion! How frightened it would be, and how it would struggle to get free. The good shepherd’s arms would be no resting-place to it then.
Or suppose it should know that the shepherd was holding it, and yet should not know the shepherd,—his kind, loving heart, how gently he would care for it himself, and give his own life rather than let anyone else hurt it. Even then it might be anxious and troubled, and wonder what was going to happen to it. It would not lie down peacefully, and rest in his bosom.
Even so, although it is true that you—God’s little ones, the Good Shepherd’s lambs—are carried in His bosom, because His own Word says so, if you do not know it, and know Him, you are missing the sweet rest and joy that He wants you to have.
You cannot get away out of His bosom, for He “fills heaven and earth,” and “in Him we live, and move, and have our being.” So the only way that we can get out of His bosom is by getting out of existence, by ceasing to be.
His arm is much too strong to let you go, for He upholds the heavens and the earth and all that are in them, and because “He is great in might and strong in power, not one escapeth.” Nothing can escape, or get away, out of His strong arm that gathers the lambs, and carries them in His bosom.
Neither can anyone snatch you away from Him, for He says that no one shall pluck His sheep out of His hand, because His Father, who gave them to Him, is greater than all, and has given Him “all power in heaven and in earth.”
And this will make you so happy as you learn more and more to know the Good Shepherd, and all that He has done and is doing for His sheep. He says: “I am come that they might have life. . . . The Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep. . . . I lay down My life for the sheep.”
Do you not already love your tender Shepherd, and will you not rest in His arms, and nestle close to His loving heart, and trust Him always for all things? Are you not glad that you are so close to Him that you can find Him every time you feel after Him?
He is your dwelling place, all round about you wherever you are. His breath is breathed every moment into your nostrils, so that you “may have life.” His gentle voice is speaking in your ear, sweet words of love and instruction and comfort, through all the things that He has made. All the food that nourishes and gives you life comes from His own being, for He is “the fountain of life.”
Learn all you can of the Good Shepherd, for the better you know Him,—His power, His love, His tenderness, His watchfulness;—the more sweetly you will rest “in His bosom.”
The Present Truth – October 4, 1900
E. J. Waggoner