I am the good shepherd: and I know My sheep, and am known by My own.
This scripture reminds me of the year that my husband and I decided to raise sheep. We had a small flock of about nine sheep, and in that flock was one lone lamb that followed my husband everywhere he went in the pasture.
Every one of the sheep would go about grazing, never paying attention to anything that was going on around them, except for one we called stinky. This little lamb would stand in the pasture in the morning looking toward the front door, waiting for my husband to come out. When he opened the front door, that lamb would walk to the gate, and wait for my husband to open it and enter the pasture. Stinky would follow my husband all day long, and as my husband said: be a pest.
We watered our pasture by flood irrigating, letting the ditches overflow to keep the grass green, to provide enough food for the sheep. Whenever my husband would bend over to clean a ditch, stinky would put his head between his leg to look at what he was doing, which hampered him immensely. Other times, as my husband would walk around in the pasture pulling weeds, or picking up something, stinky would pull the handkerchief out of his back pocket.
When I think back to that time, I think of stinky waiting for my husband, just as our Heavenly Father waits for us to come closer to Him. God wants us to be close to Him, and to be known by Him.