The Great Shepherd

From my study in Hebrews: imagining how the letter was first heard.

The reader’s voice is softer now.
The letter is ending.

My son leans against me, tracing the edge of my sleeve. I barely notice. I am listening to the last lines.
“Now may the God of peace… who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep…”

The words move through the room like evening light.

We have heard about altars.
About blood.
About suffering outside the gate.
About a covenant that cannot be shaken.

And now… peace. Not fragile peace. But the peace of the One who brought Him up.

The great Shepherd!

I think of the morning offerings in Jerusalem, the psalms the Levites sing, the smoke rising straight into the sky. And yet these words rise higher.

If He has been brought up,
if the covenant is eternal,
if we have such a High Priest…

Something rises in me.

“Ro’i,” I breathe.
My Shepherd