Thursday, March 10, 2011

Oh We, Like Sheep!

Sheep are amazing. Did you know they are the only herd animal that requires a shepherd in order to survive? For example:

When you take them a bucket of water, they knock it over -- perhaps to make sure it is water before they drink?!?

If you bring them a bucket of grain, they try to get at it from underneath the bucket and end up dumping the whole thing over.

If thirsty, they could be right at the gurgling stream and still die of dehydration because they are so scared by the sound of moving water.

Sheep also get loose. They get in the garden. They eat the crops. If tethered, they will always turn in the same direction so that, instead of a 14-foot radius, they are down to three, or one, or none. And there they stand, bleating their heads off, not knowing how they got that way. You go out there; you untangle them, and you do this so many times that you finally abandon the tethering technique altogether. Then you have to go out more often, bringing them buckets to tip over, counting heads to be sure they are all there -- and they’re not. Sure enough, here comes your neighbor with the ram in tow saying, “Hey, your lawnmower got away again!”

Other times, it’s not very amusing, Wandering aimlessly in unwittingly blithe stupidity, sheep can find themselves in big fat trouble. Sometimes they get stranded on a dangerous precipice with no place left to turn. They cry out, hoping the Good Shepherd will find them and bring them back to safety. He can, and He does. Even when they wander right straight out onto the precipice again.

Oh we, like sheep!

7 comments:

  1. Great blog & wonderful photo from '71 - brings back memories, even though we didn't know each other back then! Finally figured out how to follow your blog (yay!) Never knew exactly how dependent sheep are upon their shepherd, puts things into perspective.

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  2. So funny and so true. I am definitely a sheep. How did you know?

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  3. How wise of you, KTB. My dog-pal, Roobie, is also wryly amused to note that men are sheep and sheep are sheep!

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  4. Those scary pants again. Of course sheep often go about with their bums painted in odd colours and patterns. Roobie told me - while you were off distracted somewhere - that although people (not to use the more confusing 'men' and make it sound like she was letting women off the hook, because she definitely wasn't) may be sheep, they're harder to herd than cats. Or camels, although she confessed that camels were outside her immediate experience. I think Roobie has been listening to Not the Messiah (He's a very Naughty Boy)

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  5. hee hee hee hee --- and Roobie has this to add: COWS are pretty stupid as well. Oh we, like COWS!

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  6. What are you and Barry DOING? LOL More importantly....who is taking this picture!? You two are absolutely hysterical! :-D

    Being a sheep sure keeps us humble, doesn't it?

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  7. Well, it SHOULD keep us humble, and I think those who hear His voice and follow ARE being humble -- in actually following. But if there's one thing I learned in college, it was "hubris" -- that humans tend to have too high an high opinion ourselves, so we do things like trying to build the Tower of Babel (and other stuff) which proves to be futile without first consulting God and doing things His Way. The way I see the world today (from Japan to Libya to Wisconsin) is that we are coming to the end of our tether, all tangled up, not much rope left. Maybe soon we will see our NEED for God.

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