Why do you think we have doors on our houses? [Possible answers: to keep cold wind out, keep thieves out, keep babies from crawling outside] So the door protects us, doesn't it?

Many of the people of Jesus' time were shepherds. These men would travel with their flocks of sheep from one pasture to another. When night came, the shepherds wanted to protect their sheep from the wild animals but they didn't have a barn to put them in. What do you think they might have done to protect the sheep and to keep them from wandering off? Some of them herded the sheep into caves. Many times several shepherds would work together to make a temporary fence out of branches they found. Then they would all put their sheep in the same pen and would take turns keeping watch. Usually the shepherd on watch would lay across the opening or doorway of the pen to keep the sheep from wandering out and getting lost. This shepherd was like a living door, wasn't he?

Just like the sheep of Bible times, we need protection too. There are people who might tempt us to do something that we know is wrong. And sometimes, all by ourselves, we quit doing the things that we know we should be doing for others. When we get older and our lives get busy, many times we get lost in all the activity and just forget to pray; we start staying home from church because we feel like we are too busy. We wander off and get lost just like the sheep we talked about. In our scripture, Jesus says, I am the door. He means He is like the shepherd that laid across the entry to the sheep pen at night. If we stay close to him, by praying regularly and coming to church with other Christians, we will not forget about the protection He can give us. It's only by studying about Jesus that we can get to know God. And the more we know about God the more we will want to live like Jesus did, loving others and helping them.

Prayer: Thank you, God, for protecting us. Help us to stay close to you by learning more about you and by helping others. Forgive us when we get lost and wander away from you. In Jesus name. Amen.