Hello and welcome to today's inspiration from Our Daily Bread.

My name is Amy Boucher Pie and I called our reading The Good Shepherd.

When Pastor Warren heard that a man in his church had deserted his wife and family,

he asked God to help him meet the man

as if by accident so they could chat. And he did. When Warren walked into a restaurant,

he spotted the gentleman in a nearby booth. Got some room for another hungry man, he asked,

and soon they were sharing deeply and praying together.

As a pastor, Warren was acting as a shepherd for those in his church community, even as God

through the prophet Ezekiel said he would tend his flock. God promised to look after his scattered

sheep, rescuing them and gathering them together.

As we see in Chapter 23, he would tend them in a good pasture and search for the lost and

bring back the strays. He would bind up the injured and strengthen the weak.

God's love for his people reverberates through each of these images.

Though Ezekiel's words anticipate God's future actions,

they reflect the eternal heart of the God and shepherd

who would one day reveal himself in Jesus.

No matter our situation, God reaches out to each of us, seeking to rescue us and sheltering us in a rich pasture.

He longs for us to follow the good shepherd, he who lays down his life for his sheep.

Today's Bible reading is from Ezekiel chapter 34, verses 11 through 16.

For this is what the sovereign Lord says, I myself will search for my sheep and look after them.

As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day

of clouds and darkness. I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries,

...