So what is this ’sheep thing' all about?
I once heard a speaker (Bonnie Thomas) at a Women’s Event talk about an incident she had experienced. If I recall correctly, she had met an older eccentric Christian single lady whose home was full of collected sheep ‘stuff’ - ornaments etc including having a stuffed (taxiderm) sheep sitting atop her white grand piano, and Bonnie had asked her ‘why?’. The reply was something along the lines of as a single lady prone to worry, she decided she needed many reminders around her that she was just the sheep and Jesus was her Shepherd and she could trust him with everything. Amidst the conversation that followed, the lady gave Bonnie a little pewter lapel sheep pin, which she was wearing on the day I heard her speak. At that point I decided that if ever I began ‘collecting’ anything, I would collect sheep because of the meaning and context of sheep in Scripture and the reminders it would also give me to look to my Shepherd.
It was several years before I found my own ’first sheep’ - a hand-made tiny lapel-pin sheep, but from that point on whenever someone saw that little white lapel-pin sheep or saw my growing collection over the years, they would ask ‘why the sheep?’…and I would share the story.
So over the decades I have amassed quite a large collection of sheep ornaments, sheep on tea-towels, sheep on socks, sheep on mugs, sheep on posters or paintings, little sheep, big sheep, fluffy sheep, cuddly sheep, pottery sheep etc etc.
As we have to part with almost everything in our big move, almost all my ‘sheep’ stuff has had to be sold or given away. Most of it I have specifically given away to those who upon hearing the story in recent days, decided they too would like to start collecting sheep. So hopefully God has used many of them to help people more greatly give him glory by trusting him more as their Good Shepherd.
However, just a few days ago I came across a particular sheep and for some reason, as I picked it up to decide what to do with it, the idea of parting with it, just suddenly hit me harder than the others previously, even though it didn’t really have any extra-special significance.
It got me thinking about two truths:
1. As one of Jesus’ sheep, I don’t have to worry about ever being separated from his presence, or being left-behind, or being excluded from some future allocation of inclusion, or not being able to ‘be with’ him for all eternity or being uncertain about what he is going to do with me at the end of the age. I don’t have to fear a coming day of painful rejection or that any partings with other sheep belonging to the Shepherd is final, because we will all meet again for eternity. What a wonderful joy and privilege, all because of what Jesus has done for us.
2. There are those who think they are sheep belonging to the shepherd but are actually they don’t belong to him and a day of parting will come—eternal parting. But this is not some simple thing, it is a parting with those that God has created to be his, but that he can’t take to himself forever because they rejected him. He has no joy in the death of the wicked (Ez 18:23), and doesn’t wish for any to perish (2 Peter 3:9).
Unlike my sheep ornaments which are all sheep, those ones that will be left behind are actually not true sheep at all, but the bible describes them as goats. In Australia I found the idea rather strange of sheep looking like goats and getting them mixed, as goats and sheep in that part of the world don’t look similar at all. But here in Africa sheep are not as fluffy/woolly, and especially from a distance, the goats and sheep can appear very similar. It’s only on closer proximity and examination that the differences can be seen amidst a group of mixed animals grazing together. (The quick way to check if you are not familiar with what they look like is that the goat’s tail is ‘up’ and the sheep’s tail is ‘down’.)
If I suddenly had a sad ‘parting’ feeling with my pottery sheep (maybe its because I saw it more often as we used it as a door-stop), how much more does it sadden and grieve God’s heart when he knows a day is coming when those he created to be his, will never be, and there will be a forever eternal final and full parting.
Our move means I will miss all my sheep, but it also means we have many long held friendships that will soon feel the grief of a temporary parting. But as I pondered on ‘parting’ with my sheep, I am reminded that there is a two-fold lesson: 1. of thankfulness and joy of being a sheep that belongs securely and eternally with my Good Shepherd, but also of; 2. a reminder that there are many ‘lost sheep’ that the Shepherd wants to be ‘brought home’ and he asks us to share in the privilege of bringing them home so that the most significant future parting of all doesn’t need to occur for them, and we can have the joy of re-uniting with them one day.
When you see a sheep next time…remember the story that got me started collecting sheep, with the reminder to not worry but trust and rest in the loving care of our Shepherd…but also remember the extra two-fold lesson and rejoice again in being a sheep belonging to the Good Shepherd, and resolve again to be part of his Great Commission to share in gathering in the lost sheep who need an eternal Shepherd of their soul…
...and maybe you will start collecting sheep too, and passing on all the lessons that we can learn in life and Scripture from them.
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