Good Shepherd

Oh, Good  Shepherd, would you teach me how to rest

I’m rushing on, will you make me to lie down

Will you build a fold by the waters that refresh

Will you call my name and lead me safely out?

From my anxious drive to labor on and on

From the restless grind that has put my mind to sleep

Will you call me back and gently slow me down

Will you show me now what to lose and what to keep?

When my table’s bent with only greed and gold

And my grasping hands are afraid you won’t provide

Will you pour the wine that loosens up my hold

Set your table here with what truly satisfies?

On the busy streets trying to make myself a name

If the work is yours, there is nothing I can claim

Will you lead me home to the pastures of your peace?

And the house is yours…I’m sitting at your feet.”

(song I love by The Porters Gate, featuring Jon Guerra and Sandra McCracken)

  Kajsa is our shepherdess daughter. She rises early each morning without being reminded or called upon and feeds her bottle lamb. It is because she greatly loves each lamb that she goes out into the cold morning and night. She gets asked away on sleepovers sometimes and arranges deals with her sisters, little chore trade offs if they’ll feed her lamb for her while she’s gone. It sometimes feels like loving lambs and growing with them is a lot of heartache and headache but it gives Kajsa great purpose and happiness. It is her passion.

   We also raise cattle dogs. Kelpies with way too much herding instinct and boundless energy. Their instinct causes them to chase cattle if they’re bored and haven't been worked recently, cats if they’re naughty and sheep if no one is watching. So the lambs have gotten many a scare before. The Kelpies do nip at animals to turn them and if there isn't a wise human telling the dogs where the animals should turn, the dogs go wild on their own ideas. I'm sure they'd kill a sheep if left loose to their own devices for a day. If a human is nearby, all they want to do is make that person happy by being obedient. So they're crazy and wild on their own steam but very helpful when they realize they need to obey. Two of the loose Kelpies once chased or herded Esther at high speed through the bush till she was panting and shaking. As soon as Esther spotted Jeff across the feedlot she ran and tucked herself against his side as he walked. He got onto the dogs and Esther loved him so sweetly after that. Before that she just showed us female humans her love and adoration. We were the voices she knew and recognized and she previously ignored Jeff. Since that day, he was her saviour from dogs and she needed daily affirmation from him that their connection was still there.

   Kajsa had a lamb one cold spring who went completely missing. She’d just gotten the sweetest little black lamb Emma a couple days before. She locked her in the shed at night with the other lambs to keep them safe from cold and predators. We got home late from socializing when we'd planned to return earlier. Kajsa had worried and fretted all evening as the hours ticked past that her lambs didn’t know the place well enough to be free of the shed and might get lost. Or perhaps the dogs would get loose and chase them into a fright. She had one consolation that as soon as they heard her voice when we returned, they would bleat back in reply. We got home and her fear was realized, there was only one lamb in the pen. She called . The other lamb did not answer or come. She brought out a warm bottle and walked around calling with the bottle in hand. The black one was definitely missing. She came inside in tears. It was dark but we all grabbed flashlights and started searching. The night seemed especially black with no moon and we strained our eyes to try and discern the form of a black lamb. In between our voices was silence except for our crunching footsteps on crusty snow. We even tried bleating like a sheep, “She must be eaten by coyotes,” Kajsa cried. “She always talks back to me.”

   Finally we all came back in defeated and cold. The black lamb could not be found. We prayed that we could find her in the daylight tomorrow and Kajsa went in turmoil to her bed. I felt like like I should go alone to look one more time. Usually the lambs in distress go to where they last saw their shepherdess or where they last got fed and i knew Kajsa had fed the last bottles by the back steps. I shone my light into corners behind the house and along fallen trees in the bush.  As I came back by the steps i saw that the tin strip I put by the back entrance steps to keep dogs out from under the porch had a tiny crack in it. “A lamb would never fit in a hole that tiny,” I thought. I started to walk by but then I thought, “It never hurts to look, it’s just time that it takes anyways and the night is long ahead of us.” I got down on my knees and pulled the tin out further and stuck my head in while trying to reflect a little light in. There, curled up to keep warm and shivering with fright and cold was a small black lamb . She refused to look back at me as I talked to her. I reached in and pulled her out into my embrace. “Why didn’t you tell us where you were? We called and called and walked right by you and over you so many times as we came in and out of the house."

   The black lamb didn’t answer a sound but tucked her cold nose under my armpit and wriggled closer. I carried her into the bedroom of the shepherdess and she petted the wooly hide and we rejoiced together. That night we all slept warm and grateful.

    And i learned that lambs who are hurting and scared do not need loud voices and bright lights. Their instinct tells them to crawl into a hole somewhere and stay still and quiet as a camouflage against hungry toothy mean things. They want loud footsteps to just walk on by. Lost lambs require time standing to listen, quiet footsteps and searching eyes. They need someone to notice the tiny crack in the fence and crawl through and touch them. They’re too confused and alone to put it all into voice. Frightened lambs need a warm hug and some food. After a rest they can sort out the place they went to and why they felt like they needed to go there. The answers will come, the routine will settle into place. Just put your arm around a black lamb and offer some of your warmth if you have plenty. If you don’t have warmth, the Shepherd has plenty so you can lead them His way.

   Look for the cracks in a lamb’s armour and slip in. Don’t shine the light too strongly but feel along gently as you go. Scared lambs take time. Soon, they learn to know you and run joyfully to you because  they feel being with you is a safe place. Trust builds slowly, slowly but then suddenly so fast you hadn’t realized it was there already.

I pray I can love even one hurting lamb as well as this shepherdess in our household loves her sheep. I have the best example in Jesus the Shepherd Who loves me and makes it a joy to love Him back and follow where He leads. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.