The Shepherd
When we compare it with the other planets in our solar system, Uranus might seem like the “odd man out.” (Nothing personal, Uranus.) Probably the most obvious “oddity” to us is that Uranus’ thin ring system encircles the planet vertically — an interesting and strange sight when you consider that Jupiter, Neptune, and of course Saturn all have ring systems that surround them horizontally.1
Uranus’ rings don’t have the eye-catching beauty that the rings of Saturn are known for. If we’re looking for breakout stars among Uranus’ selection, though, one of them might be the epsilon ring — the outermost ring — which stands out in this photo taken by the Voyager 2 probe when it visited the planet in the 1980s.2
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There’s something more to be said about this particular ring than just its prominence. It’s something that can be hard to see — and it definitely isn’t flashy. However, if we take a closer look, we find that that “something” appears to have a very important role to play in the life of this ring.
An Unextraordinary Appearance…
Orbiting the outermost ring of Uranus — only just visible in a fuzzy shot taken by Voyager 2 — are two very tiny moons, each of them less than 30 miles wide. The image makes them look like nothing more than two white dots orbiting the epsilon ring, one on either side of it.3
With no known atmosphere, no known signs or indicators of life — they seem to have no more outward appeal than two hunks of rock. Not really extraordinary when we consider the much larger and much more complex worlds of the Jupiter moons Io, Europa — and, yes, I guess we could even say Callisto.
About 2,000 years ago, there was a man who walked the surface of the earth and who, by all human standards of beauty, probably didn’t look too extraordinary either. If a satellite had zoomed in on his corner of the world all those years ago and snapped a photo, he probably would have looked like all the other inhabitants of the planet — a little dot moving about the land.
It makes me wonder: If I had lived during that time, would I have recognized him? Truly recognized him?
“He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him” (Isaiah 53:2b).
Would I have been blessed with the eyes of faith to see this man as more than just a neighbor, a carpenter, or a friend? Would I have seen past his human face and manmade clothes and discovered the presence and power of the one true God in him — and the fulfillment of the Messianic promise contained in his flesh?
Human eyes and human minds don’t see everything that is real and true. One of the reasons is that a sinful nature lies within us — a nature that doesn’t want to see and accept the true living God. It is a sinful nature that desires only to understand what the flesh can understand and wants to understand — the things that men “understand by instinct, like unreasoning animals” (Jude 10).
It is that desire, though, that can lead us away from the most important reality of all: the eternal and omnipotent God who created us and set us into being in the first place.
“We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way…” (Isaiah 53:6a)
We need help. We need guidance. We need grace. But not just any kind of grace: we need the full grace of the perfect God who alone can redeem us from the sin that permeates our flesh.
So, where do we find that kind of supernatural grace?
“…and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6b).
There is indeed more to be seen in that seemingly ordinary man from 2,000 years ago than what our human sight and our human logic can tell us. More than our sinful natures desire us to see. Through the power of God’s Word and the work of God’s Holy Spirit in our minds and hearts, we can see it — and how extraordinary it is for us.
…An Extraordinary Purpose
Study the two aforementioned moons of Uranus more closely — their names are Cordelia and Ophelia — and we find there is more to them than meets the eye. In fact, the pride of Uranus’ ring system, the epsilon ring, may have these two little guys to thank for being able to remain the ring that it is.
It seems that these two rather ordinary objects act as “shepherd moons”.
Moons that, thanks to their gravitational influence, keep material from leaking out of the ring, thus maintaining the ring shape we see today. Saturn is said to have such moons as well.4
Humanity was created by a loving God — but with their free wills, human beings have strayed away from the God who made them. We have allowed ourselves to be led off course by the cravings of our flesh. We are continually called by voices and ideas that lie outside of God’s law and truth.
However, despite our deviating, God has remained steadfast to his creations. Though we should have been cast out of his sight and into empty, hopeless darkness for all that we have done against him, God, in his powerful love, gave us something that we, his wayward sheep, did not deserve — a Shepherd to bring us home.
This Shepherd willingly left the pastures of heaven and ventured into the foul and dismal lands his sheep ventured into. This Shepherd faced scorn, suffering, and death to get his sheep back.
This Shepherd continues to use his power to pick up his sheep time and time again and carry them back to his fold — his ring.
This Shepherd was — and is — that “dot” that once moved about the earth. That neighbor, carpenter, and friend. The God-man, Jesus Christ.
“‘I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me — just as the Father knows me and I know the Father — and I lay down my life for the sheep’” (John 10:14-15).
Like the material that is bound to Uranus’ epsilon ring by the shepherd moons’ gravitational force, we, by the will of God and through our God-given faith in Jesus, are members of God’s flock. In God’s sight, we are spiritually intact through the work of his Son.
Because of our Shepherd, we are safe.
“For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls” (1 Peter 2:25).
1 Martin Rees, ed., Universe, Barnes & Noble Exclusive Edition (New York: DK Publishing, 2017), 181, 188, 200-201, 204-205.
2 Ibid., 200-201.
3 Ibid., 202.
4 Ibid., 202, 192.
