Can you think of a time when you felt completely safe?
Like you were known and accepted for exactly who you were, what you needed, what you were capable of, and how you might flourish?
Like you were loved for all the ways you were going to change and stay the same, succeed and fail, be confident and scared, offer and take, stand out and hide?
Like if nothing changed or everything changed that safety would still be there?
Have you ever had that feeling? Even for an instant? For that split second between sleeping and waking? For that fleeting sense that disappears as soon as it arrives?
This is the feeling Jesus wants us to feel all the time with a life in God.
In the John passage this week Jesus says “I am the gatekeeper” meaning I am going to protect, care and sacrifice for you. Jesus also says “I am the gate” meaning we walk deeper into God’s love when we develop our trust, our listening and our embracing of the way of Jesus.
In the Acts passage this week we see the new community removing the barriers that prevent them from knowing God, trusting God, hoping in God and living an abundant life in God.
It is this two-way relationship between the sheep and shepherd (us and God) that leads Jesus to declare “I came that you may have life and have it abundantly.”
What a safe place.