Climbing with the Shepherd

As a child I always loved Mary Baker Eddy’s poem, “ ‘Feed My Sheep’, ” set to music as a hymn in the Christian Science Hymnal (Nos. 304–309, 456). It’s about God as a Shepherd, guiding and guarding His children as they move along. A few months ago I had a really cool opportunity get some new insights into this hymn’s meaning.

I woke up early in the morning to go for a long hike in the Brecon Beacons, a national park in Wales. Towards the beginning of the hike I had to climb up a steep hill, and I was finding it pretty challenging. In fact, I actually decided to start singing the hymn I mentioned above … out loud. 

The first two lines had a pretty big impact on me, “Shepherd, show me how to go, / O’er the hillside steep.” There I was, literally climbing up a steep hill! I decided to stop for a moment, and I was in awe of the beautiful landscape, despite the fact that I had not yet reached the top. I knew that if I kept going, the landscape would be even more phenomenal, but I was grateful to be able to stop and see the progress that had been made so far. 

In the past, I’d always thought of the metaphor of the “hillside steep” as a really difficult time, and that we would only find peace when we reached the top, the resolution to a challenge or a clear answer. This experience showed me otherwise, and I was grateful to see that although I knew reaching the top would be fantastic, I also knew the journey up was filled with lots of inspiring moments, too.

When I did reach the top, I started to think more about what it meant to be a “sheep” since God is our Shepherd. This is a theme that’s emphasized many times in the Bible. I’d always loved the idea of God guiding us, but thought that there might be more to being a sheep than the humility and trust involved in following a leader.  

As I was walking, I approached a couple of sheep who were on the pathway in front of me. The sheep needed to climb over a mini ridge in order to move out of my way. One of them made the leap successfully, but almost immediately turned back, noticing that his companion couldn’t get over. So he put his head under the back legs of the other sheep to lift him up, and they were both able to move. 

God is our Shepherd. This is a theme that’s emphasized many times in the Bible.

This reminded me of brotherly love, the love that Christ Jesus taught, and I realized this was an essential part of having God as our Shepherd—that as God’s children we also look out for and help each other.

As I continued on the hike, climbing up and down various hills, I noticed how spread out all the sheep were. Some were high up on the hills, others were down in the valley, and they were scattered for miles. I actually started to question whether they even had a shepherd, as it seemed it would be impossible for the shepherd to know where they were. 

As I climbed up the last peak, I heard a loud voice shouting behind me echoing through the mountains. I turned around to see what was happening, and with a view of everywhere I had been so far, I saw all the sheep walking across the hills to their shepherd. No matter where they were, up on the mountain somewhere, or down in the valley, they could hear their shepherd’s voice and obeyed. 

I loved this clear illustration showing me that no matter where we are in our experience, no matter how far or how close we think we are to God, we can hear His voice and direction if we’re listening.