Jesus knows us by name, personally and intimately. He knows and loves us even if we haven’t shared anything with him.
As an aside, I think we often don’t tell Jesus things because we take for granted that he knows. I think he would love to sit down and, over a meal, hear our story. How would it feel to have Jesus at your dinner table
tonight and ask about your life?
For me, the remarkable thing about this verse is, “I lay down my life for the sheep.” Jesus gave himself up to die of his own will. He lived his life, accepted death, and rose again as an act of obedience to God. This atoning sacrifice was for his “sheep,” the ones he knows well and who know him well.
Who or what would you lay your life down
for? Why? I wonder how you feel when you think about Jesus doing that for you.
Reflections by Gillian Hugo
