Lessons from Lambs - A Friday Finds

Maybe we came to West Virginia a week too early...or maybe Spring is a week late...(the high mountains are still pretty dormant).

But the timing for finding lambs could not have been more perfect!!!

We came across a flock of about 200 ewes...and the owner/caretaker said they average 2 lambs each.

Then things began to get very active...they were all very aware of their owner...and began crossing the road to follow him.  At first, mostly the ewes...

Then the lambs started to catch on...to follow their moms to the action.  But what was the action?

He brought out a tractor with a contraption that spread corn all over the grass. 

The ewes were ON it...like white on rice...and the lambs could not get a look for nothin'!

And even lambs who were in the thick of it even seemed clueless (or perhaps this one already had the pecking order down and knew it wasn't his turn)...so much to learn when you're a baby!

But I could not help but be fascinated at how these sheep knew who their shepherd was. It was obvious this was the owner and not just a hired hand.  They knew who cared for them.  And they never let him out of their sight, followed them without straying to the right or to the left, without doubt or fear.  Just having celebrated Easter, I thought about how Christ proclaimed to be the Good Shepherd who laid down his life for the sheep in John 10.  And the characteristics of His sheep are plain and simple:

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. (John 10:27)

Oh that I might follow my Shepherd as this gift of grace found in these sheep on the backroads today.

Ooooooohh...Shiny! - The Battlefield of the Mind - Day 11

Wow, 3 days left...this series has been a daily commitment...but I've grown through it.

Now...if I've made you think that following Christ is one battle after another...I've mislead you.  It is not...for one thing, would want to deal with that...The other, that would make the strategy of the enemy way too obvious and expected...

When I was little, my mother and I would often be in a store shopping. She loved the "five and dime" stores like Grant's, Kresge's, or Woolworth. I'd be walking along next to her, enjoying her company, enjoying being near her...when something else would get my attention...

(oooooh, shiny!). And after giving that "something" my full attention, I'd look up and my mom was gone!

Panicked, I would go up and down the aisles of the HUGE store (always huge when your a first grader) trying to catch a glimpse of her...THERE SHE IS...in the fabric. And that peace would come back and I wanted to be even closer...hold her hand.

We can be going along the way in our green pastures and still waters...thinking all is right with the world...

and then look up only to not be able to see our Shepherd. We were distracted and failed to follow. And alone...we become vulnerable.

But thank God for the boundaries He has provided to keep us from things that might devour us...like big, ugly Bruno dogs...

And for Christian friends who help us along the way...especially girlfriends.  But we DO have a good Shepherd that loves and cares for us, and watches over us, along the way!

Casting the whole of your care...all your anxieties...

your worries...your concerns..., once and for all on Him,

for He cares for your affectionately 

and cares about you watchfully.

I Peter 5:7 (AMP)