As the father of three beautiful young women, I have taken up an unofficial hobby over the years: collecting personal protection devices for my daughters. Near the checkout stand in many stores you can find displays of such devices: screecher alarms for your key chain, pepper spray, etc. Well, I have a whole bureau drawer full of those things. One evening last summer, one of my daughters wanted to go jogging. I said, "Hold on . . . " and presented her with my latest purchase: a strobe light that Velcros onto your arm and flashes when you're running at night. My daughter sighed and said, "Oh Daddy." It's so easy for anxiety to take over our lives.

But in John 10 we are told that a shepherd is watching over us. Jesus says, "I am the good shepherd." I used to think that the phrase "good shepherd" meant a nice, kind-hearted shepherd. However, that's not what the Greek word "good" means here. Translated precisely, Jesus is saying, "I am the excellent shepherd." Our Lord is claiming to be the Michael Jordan of shepherds: "No wolf ever laid a paw on one of my sheep. I am the good shepherd."

To drive his point home, he says, "I know my sheep and my sheep know me."

Here's a riddle for you. What is the one thing God can't do? Philosophers pose hypothetical questions about God's power: can God make a rock that would be too heavy for himself to lift? That would be some rock, wouldn't it? I do know one thing God can't do: look out on this room and see a crowd. You and I walk in and say, "Hey, there's a nice crowd at the 9:00 service." God looks and says, "There's Bill, and Mary and John and Charlotte . . . and Holly and Kevin and Tammy." By far, the hardest thing for me about coming to Peachtree has been the challenge of learning 10,000 names. This task is a definitely a work still in progress. This shepherd, your pastor, may not have retained your name yet, but the good shepherd knows you through and through. As we entered his sheep pen this morning he was standing there looking over each one of us, scanning our lives, saying, "Look at that cut, I need to take care of that bruise . . . Here's some salve of the Holy Spirit for that nasty wound . . . Here's a momma sheep bringing her baby lambs, she looks tired, I'll give her some time beside still waters . . . There's a big old daddy ram who's been butting heads a lot lately; he needs time out in green pastures, the ones with 18 holes . . . "

God knows our needs. When we need to be out in green pastures, he answers that need. When Jesus says, "I am the good shepherd" he means, "I know my sheep completely — their diseases, their fears, their dreams and joys."

And then Jesus says, "My sheep know me." Here's a little more "shepherdology." In ancient times, every night all the sheep from all the flocks would be herded into a single pen. That way one shepherd could have night duty, while all the other shepherds got some sleep. The shepherds didn't worry about intermingling all the sheep from all the herds. Why?