The Good Shepherd.3

"I give them eternal life.

They will never be destroyed, nor can anyone tear them out of my hand.

My Father, who gave them to me, is greater than any kingdom or power; and no force is able to pluck even the weakest from his mighty hand."

--Jesus

In my role as pastor I had the privilege of officiating many wedding ceremonies. In those precious moments

watching two human beings make the most important promise of their lives - to live together as One - I don't recall one couple ever vowing together to make each other miserable!

And yet it doesn't take Americans very long to make each other miserable in

their marriages...about 7 years is the average before the end of a life together, once filled with hopes and dreams, comes to a crashing halt!

So perhaps that is why we, generally speaking, have a difficult time understanding words that promise an experience that can withstand the onslaught of doubt, fear, temptation, anger, resentment, accusation, deception and disappointment that we contend with in trying to safeguard promises from one human to another!

"I give them eternal life." What human being really knows what that means? Especially when we struggle so much with the life we do know about? But Jesus isn't calling us to a place, He's calling us to a Person - the Universal Promise Maker and Ultimate Promise Keeper! 

The closest we can get as humans to understanding this idea is, in fact, marriage! When we make those vows to another human being we have no idea what the future holds! We can imagine the future we'd like but it surely isn't one we're guaranteed. I once viewed a college student's research project about the "secret" of marriages that had lasted over 50 years. Everyone of these couples had survived tragic events that had served to make them stronger as individuals in faith and temperament thus ensuring a stalwart, enduring friendship. Events like the loss of a child, economic downturns, financial struggles, natural disasters, and even infidelity!

But I've also witnessed the destruction of those who stop believing in one another and begin to "hedge their bets" against infidelity, tragedy and a general feeling of unhappiness. Isn't the ultimate "hedging" some sort of "pre-nuptial" agreement that deliberately broadcasts that we're so convinced of the unreliability of long term human commitment we're just going to flat out ensure marital failure? How does that ensure failure? Because rather then stating at the outset of the journey that I promise to "give what I can as long as I can", we say "I'll get what I can as long as I can", we send a clear message that I'm in this for me not you.

But the Designer of Marriage viewed it as a covenant not a contract. In a contract, built on distrust, the terms try as best they can to define the minimum obligations and responsibility by the participants. In other words, contracts are a 50/50 agreement: I'll do this if you do that. If circumstances change, I'm no longer obligated.

A Covenant is built on mutual trust and responsibility. It is a 100-0 proposition which says: I am all in, I'll do my part even if you don't do yours! Even if circumstances change, I will do what I said I would do!

In this context, the struggle we have to understand Promises Made/Promises Kept, a conversation with a divorced co-worker takes on more meaning. After five years she still struggles with the bitterness of broken promises. Her attempts to establish a relationship with others is often co-opted by her conscious and unconscious fear of failure and has the potential to destroy the work she's put into building a good family.

Her good friend, a pastor's wife, has tried to help her with her struggles but has been rebuffed in her sage advice time after time after time.

However, the pastor's wife, consciously or unconsciously, describes her own insecurity when she confessed she doesn't know with certainty whether she is going to heaven or not!

"No One Is Able To Snatch Them Out Of My Hand!" And, just in case we didn't get it the first time, Jesus bolstered the message: "My Father, who gave them to me, is greater than any kingdom or power; and no force is able to pluck even the weakest from his mighty hand."

What part of "can't snatch" do we not understand??!!!

Let us confess: we are the weakest when our faith eyes grow dim due to the churning waters of heartache and disappointment which snatch our attention away from Him. We sink and wallow in the despair of our pain forgetting that the Man of Sorrow completely understands and cares for us and does not allow us to endure more than that which helps us grow stronger.

His death on the cross sealed His 100% covenant commitment. His resurrection ensures our 100% security. In Him, author and perfector of Faith, our covenant relationship begins, like marriage, the moment we say "I will" to His invitation to follow.

What is our part in the Covenant? Like sheep, we are called to Follow, i.e., do wholeheartedly what and where He tells us. As MacDonald points out: "If you can think of not one thing this day you have done because the Master said "Do this" or not done because He said, "Don't do this," you have good reason to believe you are not His disciple! Obedience is not perfection, it is trying. And trusting that the Good Shepherd will help us in our trying to get better and better! He always has in view the Perfecting of Love in and through us and knows precisely what and when it will take to get us there!

That, my friend, is Eternal Life! It is something we begin to understand in the here and now, not by becoming sheep herders, but by understanding the truth of the marriage covenant.

The husband, as representative of Jesus, the Head, creates an atmosphere of love and trust through sacrifice and service, that allows His wife to achieve Radiant Beauty. The wife, representing those of us on our way to glory, overcomes her natural inclination to fearfulness and self-will, opens her heart more and more to her husband's direction, discipline, protection and provision for her, allowing God to use that safe environment to help her become all she is meant to be.

• When a husband is secure in his wife's respect for his God-endowed
  
  role;
• When a wife is secure in her husband's Godly love for her;
• When a marriage is living out it's God-centered purpose: creating the ideal laboratory for God's Perfecting love, 

a hostile thought of breakup or divorce has a snowball's chance in hell of surviving! 

It surely is a mystery, but one that leads us to a greater understanding of what it means to be unsnatchable in the Father's hand!