There is a field behind my house which the farmer cuts three or four times a year for silage. The field next to it belongs to another farmer and last week he put his flock of sheep on it, carefully closing the gate. All was well for the first couple of days, but on opening the curtains one morning, there was one lone sheep on the wrong side of the hedge. She had obviously pushed her way through the hedge although there was no observable gap.
At first she seemed content and munched away quite happily, but as the morning wore on it was pitifully obvious that she was in some distress, as the bleating got louder and louder, with the rest of the flock joining in from the other field, and in vain she frantically tried to look for a way through to reach them.
I telephoned the farmer, but unfortunately he was very busy at the time and unable to come to her rescue, so the sorry sight continued. Much, much later the farmer turned up, the sheep ran to meet him and he led her back into his field to all her companions.
At this point, how easy it would be for us to say “what a silly sheep, she should have known what was good for her and stayed with the others”. How strange that we can see what is best for the sheep, but cannot see that the sheep is us – hopeless, helpless humanity, constantly going astray, sinning against God.
We must acknowledge how sinful we are and how much we need our Father’s constant forgiveness and care so that we too will be able to say:
The sheep was so glad to see the farmer, will we be glad to see the Good Shepherd at His Return to the earth, because Christ has promised to come back to this world.
