A friend of mine tells the story about a certain pastor who faced a dilemma. His wife's little kitten was stuck up a tree, and wouldn't come down. The minister tried a variety of things to convince the kitten to descend, but to no avail. The cat was just plain scared. Now the tree was not sturdy enough to be climbed by a full-size man, so the pastor came up with a brilliant plan. If he tied a rope around the trunk of the tree - as high up as he could reach - and if he connected the other end to the bumper of his black 1989 Ford F-150 pick-up truck, and if he slowly drove away, the tree would bend over, and he would be able to retrieve the cat. Only a minister could come up with such a plan!

So he climbed the tree as high as he could, and tied the rope. He attached the other end to the vehicle. He started the engine, and slowly pulled away. And lo, and behold, it worked! The tree bent over, and down came the cat. Almost. He couldn't quite reach, but it was close.

So the minister got back in the truck, depressed the accelerator, and moved forward some more. The tree bent over almost perfectly. The minister got out of the truck and reached for the cat. And he would have gotten it if the rope hadn't snapped! With a loud boing! the tree whipped back and launched that little kitten like a space shuttle out of Cape Canaveral. Up, up and away it went! The minister felt awful. He searched the neighborhood, asking people if they had seen the flying cat. But no one had. So he prayerfully committed the kitten to the care of God, and went home hoping his wife wouldn't ask him if he'd seen her cat.

A few days later, this same minister was in the grocery store when he noticed one of his church members with a shopping cart full of cat food. Knowing that this woman did not own a cat, he approached the woman and asked, "Why are you buying so much cat food when you don't even have a cat?"

The woman smiled and answered, "Pastor, my little girl has been pestering me for a cat for a long time. Finally, the other day, she wore me down and I said to her, 'If God provides you a cat, I'll let you keep it.' Well, I watched as she went out into the backyard, got down on her knees and prayed for God to send her a cat. And you won't believe this, but, at that VERY moment…"

Now, if you've come to worship today wondering what God is like, let me challenge you into seeing God as one who takes great joy in raining cats down on little girls in answer to their prayers! God specializes in dropping unanticipated blessings into our lives. Experiences of surprising joy that come to us in the very midst of sorrow and loss. Small glimpses of hope that somehow appear during times of despair. Little touches of his hand at moments when we feel like we're all alone.

God specializes in surprising gifts of love and grace. He enjoys raining kittens down on people! One of the beautiful ways the Bible describes this is by using the image of grass growing in the desert. The biblical stories of shepherds almost always include a reference to green grass and still water. What a wonderful surprise in the land of Palestine! While green grass and still water may be plentiful here in East Tennessee, not so in the world of the Bible. The shepherd in Bible stories pulls off quite an amazing feat. In the midst of dry and barren desert, he somehow gets his flock to an oasis.

Green grass in the midst of the desert! It may not quite compare with cats falling out of the sky, but nonetheless, its one of those remarkable scenes we come across as we learn about God's love for his people. One of my favorite stories is in Mark 6 where Jesus is out in the wilderness with about 5,000 people. He teaches them all day long, and when evening comes, they're hungry. But all the grocery stores are closed. The closest McDonald's is miles away. Jesus tells the disciples to give the people something to eat. And you know the rest of the story - how they locate five fish and two loaves, and somehow, it becomes enough to feed all 5,000 people, with basketfuls to spare! But to me there's another remarkable part of the story. Just before Jesus multiplies the fish and the bread, he tells these people in the desert wilderness to sit down in groups on the green grass!

Green grass in the midst of the desert! Cats falling out of the sky! God specializes in surprising us with blessings we just don't expect.

Now today is Mother's Day, and we are united in wanting to give thanks for our mothers. But I want to invite you to take a further step. Let's take a look at how our moms have been God's agents for growing green grass in the desert places of our lives. Motherly endeavors, however human they may be, seem to truly reflect the touch of God in the lives of their children, and their world. Mothers are one of the human faces of God.

You know, it's interesting to consider the faces - or images - of God that are most often used in the contemporary world. Frequently, God is seen as Lord. King. Savior. Master. Father. Teacher. Judge. And yet, when John the gospelwriter tried to interpret for the people of his day why Jesus once healed a blind man on the Sabbath - in direct violation of the fourth commandment - John did not use any of those descriptive images. He could have said that Jesus did it because, after all, he is the Lord of the Sabbath. Or because he is the King of Kings and can do whatever he darn well pleases. Or because he has the saving authority of God. Or because, as a Father, Teacher and Judge, he has the right to make the rules the rest of the family must follow. John could have used any of these images and explained it in any of those ways.

But he didn't.

No, when John explained why Jesus ignored the rules and went ahead to perform this act of great compassion, he chose to use another image. He described Jesus as a good shepherd.

And look at the details of the image. The good shepherd, we read, knows his sheep, and the sheep know him. You see, Jesus' relationship with humanity - with us - is no impersonal business venture like that of a rancher raising cattle to be killed. Any farmer will tell you that, in that kind of endeavor, you never get personal with the animals. Those who grew up on farms often recall how they were never allowed to give names to the animals because some of those animals would become supper! Identifying them with names makes it much too personal, and much more difficult to bring them to the slaughterhouse..

But Jesus describes his relationship to this blind man - and to you and me and all human beings - not as a business deal, but as a personal relationship. These sheep have names! Jesus speaks to them. And they recognize his voice. Jesus summarizes all this by saying that he knows his sheep. And they know him.

Someone has said that we would better understand this kind of living, personal, nurturing relationship Jesus has with us as a kind of mothering rather than as a kind of authoritarian leadership. To Jesus, sheep are much more like children to be loved and cared for than like mere animals to be raised and led to the ultimate economic purpose of their owner.

And, in verse 11 of John 10, Jesus summarizes the nature of this nurturing motherly relationship by describing it's highest principle. The good shepherd, Jesus says, lays down his life for the sheep. It is a relationship of pure altruism. It is the sort of thing that we observe almost universally in mothers. It can be seen in a doe that leads hunters away from her fawns, or a mother bird faking injury to attract a predator away from the nest.

Not long ago, there was a forest fire in western Canada that leveled a farm, including all it's outbuildings. After the embers had cooled, the owner was walking with the insurance adjuster, inspecting the damage. They came upon a charred lump on the ground. The owner prodded it with a stick and discovered that it was a hen that had been killed by the fire. He flipped it over, and underneath were three baby chicks, still alive and chirping away. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

And for many of us, the closest glimpses we have ever had of a good shepherd have been in the lives of our mothers! As human as they may be, our moms have given us a glimpse into what Jesus is like.

Our Old Testament lesson was the famous 23rd psalm. I think it's the most beautiful psalm of all. But if you want to truly understand what it means in the context of real life, try this: insert your mother into that psalm, and let her real-life love for you convey the meaning of God as your shepherd. Perhaps it would go like this:

Now, all this is to say that God has been raining cats and growing grass in your life from before the moment you were born. Through the life of your mother - and others like her - you've experienced the touch of the good shepherd. So think about that today. What can you learn about God from your mom? And be thankful.

And if you want to make a difference in the world as a follower of Jesus, work at becoming motherly toward others. Be a good shepherd, like your mother. The world doesn't need you to become another masculine religious authority figure who knows a lot about preaching, but nothing about changing diapers. There are enough of those already. More than anything, the world needs people who know how to love others as mothers love their children. People who are willing to learn how to make grass grow, and how to make cats fly!

To do that, you have to come into relationship with others - getting to know them and letting them get to know you. You have to have conversation so that you will learn to recognize each other's voices. Learning to listen is such an important part of being a good shepherd. And of course, it takes a commitment to lay down your life for the person you seek to lead to God.

Are there such Christians in the world today?

Sure there are. Your mother is one of them.

Now go and become a good shepherd yourself!