Shepherdess: December 2018

Set Free!

One seemingly insignificant event changed everything...

When I do chores each morning I take a sheep head count, 12 in the back pasture, 4 in the front, etc. This morning 1 sheep was missing, my oldest, very old sheep, JoAnn. She is usually with the flock. Today she wasn't.

I started calling my typical, "Sheep, sheep sheep" call which brings all my sheep to me immediately. This time, the flock came without JoAnn. As I scanned the paddocks I saw an almost imperceptible movement from the very farthest paddock. Was it my imagination or was it JoAnn responding automatically to her shepherdess' call as she had all her life?

I got to that paddock as fast as I could only to find JoAnn laying on her side, panting, entrapped in the tentacles of a multi flora rose bush. It was obvious she did not have much time to live-sheep can bloat to death if they are on their side for too long.

I got JoAnn on her feet and left briefly to get trimmers to cut her out of her entanglement. Within minutes she was free--a little wobbly but free--seemingly unaware she almost died. And, she wasn't the least bit grateful for my intervention or acknowledged me as she ran to meet the flock. I had just saved her life but she couldn't have cared less.

I remember memorizing Psalm 23 when I was a child in Vacation Bible School. Back then, I memorized it so I could win a prize. Now I recite it from memory because He is My Shepherd--which makes me His Sheep.

Today I call myself a part-time shepherdess, full-time sheep since I've cared for sheep for 18 years. It's been quite the interesting adventure. It's also been quite the blessing.

The fact Christ is called The Good Shepherd and also The Lamb of God is not lost on me. Those metaphors touch me so deeply at times as I tend to my sheep, almost bringing me to tears.

I look over my flock and I know them all by name because they are my sheep--the sheep of my pastures. Just like Christ--The Good Shepherd--knows me by name because I am His.

When I call my sheep to me they come because they know my voice just as those who are Christ's "sheep" come when He calls: "My sheep know my voice, and I know them and they follow me." (John 10:27).

I could write for hours about the way Christ has met me--encouraged me--loved me in my earthly role as a shepherdess. I could go on for days about His tenderness as a Shepherd to me personally--his often times rebellious and ungrateful sheep. These could understandably be words written in vain for those who have never spent a day as a shepherd.

But there is one thing we can all comprehend and internalize regardless of our vocation in life. This Good Shepherd/Lamb is also The: King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Wonderful Counselor, Almighty God, Prince of Peace, Alpha and Omega, Everlasting Father and so much more. So very much more.

The King of Kings came to us as a baby in a humble manger secreted away from the world. Not exactly how we would think the Savior of the world should or would show up.

But that one seemingly insignificant event changed everything forever. For everyone.

We were destined to be entrapped in the tentacles of sin and death with no way out--ungrateful sheep with no Shepherd to free us from ourselves, maybe caring little about the sacrifice made for that freedom. But that one event--which had been planned before the world began--gave us a way to forever leave those things behind that bind us on earth, to be set free forever.

That one event was just the beginning of the most magnificent continuing love story of all time, and the day will come when all who are His Sheep will live forever in His pasture. His beloved sheep that He knows by name. Every one He knows by name.

And as I sit in my barn at night watching my sheep--their quiet contentment at being safe and secure in my care resonates deeply in my soul. They are my sheep, I am their shepherd. I am His Sheep, He is my Shepherd.

I am His and He is mine. And when on my final day on earth He calls I will go to Him because I know His voice. I will heed my Good Shepherd's call as I have all my life. Forever set free.

Sunday, December 23, 2018