Look at this...oh how the mighty have fallen, well...not fallen, just hobbled. This is how I found Goth yesterday. Front right foot hung up in his front lower horn. He was able to stand up and sort of do a jumping walk. He was NOT happy though. He was not as interested in his morning alfalfa and instead of eating eagerly, he nibbled and lay down again. I was hoping that the alfalfa would some how magically inspire him to disentangle himself, since I was alone at the time, Hubby being off to town for errands. No such luck. When he lay down instead of eating I knew I would have to try to help him by myself.Why I thought being thus handicapped would make it easy for me to help Goth I do not know. The stinker ran away ! I mean he RAN! On three legs ! When I tried to grab his horns he swung his head. You need to know, Goth has inflicted some impressive bruises on me by just swinging his head while I have been holding his horns. I tried several times to help him, he was not appreciative and continued to run and swing his head. I figured if he could run, then he could wait until I had help.
My Hubby finally came home and together we cornered Goth, while Goth swung his head I grabbed a horn and held on. Hubby disentangled Goth . Goths' leg was swollen and he limped around for awhile , but was just fine and dandy a few hours later.
After more than 15 years of keeping sheep I know they need a shepherd. I have pulled these wooly critters out of trouble that borders on the ridiculous. How these sheep get into the predicaments they do is a marvel. No one could think up the trouble they get into and the creative ways we have had to help them out. They most definitely do not want our help even after hours of being stuck in weird places, endangered by coyotes. They try to flee from shearing and vaccinations and worming. About the only thing they WANT to come to me for are treats. I can tell they are interested in me, but just for watching and probably they are watching me just in case I provide more food.
How like people. God, please let me do what I want, when I want to, without consequences. God, please do not discipline me, or get in the way of my 'fun'. Like sheep I want my own way without the fuss and bother of thinking about my heavenly Father, my heavenly Shepherd who only wants the very best for His sheep and sometimes His care and mercy seems harsh and painful. However, like the earthly shepherd and his sheep..this is needful for a healthy sheep.
From ' Moody's Anecdotes' pp.70-71 "Dr. Andrew Bonar told me how in the Highlands of Scotland, a sheep would often wander into the rocks and get into places they couldn't get out of. The grass on these mountains is very sweet and the sheep like it, and they will jump down ten or twelve feet, and then they can't jump back again, and the shepherd hears them bleating in distress. They may be there for days, until they have eaten all the grass. The shepherd will wait until they are so faint they cannot stand, and then they will put a rope around him, and he will go over and pull that sheep up out of the jaws of death. "Why don't they go down there when the sheep first gets there ?" I asked. " Ah!" He said, "they are so very foolish they would dash right over the precipice and be killed if they did!" And that is the way with men; they won't go back to God till they have no friends and have lost everything. If you are a wanderer I tell you that the Good Shepherd will bring you back the moment you have given up trying to save yourself and are willing to let Him save you His own way. "
"All of us like sheep have gone astray, each has turned to his own way.But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth." Isaiah 53: 6,7
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