Where the Green Grass Grows

By Grant Gaines

If you talk to anyone who recently got back from a mission trip in a third world country, one of the first things they will bring up is the thankfulness with which the people in that country live with. Compared to us, these people have nothing—a tiny grass hut for shelter, one small, bland bowl of rice to feed their family for a day, and a bucket of murky, unfiltered water is all they have. And yet, despite their scarcity of resources, their attitude of thankfulness and contentment can only be rivaled by a satisfied dog after receiving his meaty bone.

It’s amazing how with so little you can feel like a billionaire and how with so much you can feel like you’re poor. But that’s exactly what happens when we put our hope and identity in our possessions—we never have enough. We become just like billionaire John D. Rockefeller who was once asked by a reporter, “How much money is enough?” to which he famously responded, “Just one more dollar.”

Just one more dollar. Just one more purse. Just one more championship. Just one more raise. Just one more degree. Just one more child. Just one more outfit. Just one more mile. Just one more whatever. Our focus is consumed with what’s next and we begin to miss what we currently have in the present moment. The most famous Psalm in the Bible—Psalms 23—has something to say about this.

“The LORD is my Shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for His Name’s sake” (Psalms 23:1-3, ESV).

Does anything strike you as odd from those three verses? Did you notice the choice of words in the second verse—He makes me lie down in green pastures?

I’ve always glazed over that word choice as I’ve read this beloved Psalm, but the other day God waved a red flag as I read this sentence—“He makes me lie down in green pastures.” Isn’t it strange that you have to “make” someone lie down in green pastures? Shouldn’t they want to lie down in them?

Well as counterintuitive as it may seem, this is exactly what shepherds have to do with their sheep—they have to make them lie down in green pastures. You see, sheep are, to put it plainly, dumb enough to wander around for days and days throughout green pastures without ever settling down because they don’t recognize what is under their feet.

And according to this Psalm there are only two characters mentioned—a shepherd and his sheep. Verse one tells us that the Lord is the Shepherd which means that we must be the sheep in this passage. In other words, we—like sheep—are dumb enough (no offense) to wander for days, and months, years across green pastures in search for something better because we don’t recognize what is under our feet.

So what does the Good Shepherd do? Exactly what any good shepherd would do—makes his flock lie down in the green pastures that they are currently in before moving on.

Maybe the reason you haven’t received the new job, a child, or a spouse yet is because God is teaching you to enjoy the green pastures that you are in right now before moving on to other ones. Maybe what God is trying to teach you right now is that the grass is not always greener on the other side, it is green where you water it.

I love in Mark 6:39 (NIV, bold mine), which is right in the middle of the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000, the author descriptively reports, “Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass.” There it is again—“green grass”. Christ instructed the people to sit down in the grass so He could feed them rather than allowing them to continue to wander throughout the countryside with hungry bellies.

He does the same for us—He make us lie down where we are at so He can minister to us in our current condition before moving us along into different stages of life.

What “green grass” is God making you lie down in right now? Are you resisting Him or are you learning to trust Him in the ‘lying down times?’

Comments? Questions? Suggestions?

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