The Difficult One
Recently, someone left the gate open on our farm (I won’t name names!). Within a very short amount of time, our sheep and cow went bolting down the road, out the front gate, and almost onto Dayboro Road! Luckily, we have great neighbours who alerted us, and I was able to lead them back to our paddock. My neighbour couldn’t lead them back, only me – their shepherd. It reminded me of Jesus’ words in John 10:27, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”
I love how God works in our lives and teaches us through everyday incidents like this. Historically, I’ve had one sheep in my flock that has always been a bit of a problem, a bit different and skittish. For example, when I call the sheep in for some feed, every sheep but this one will come running. Recently, due to wild animal attacks, I’ve been locking up my sheep at night, and so I’ve had more contact with them. The other day, I looked at this difficult sheep and realised that she wasn’t the problem at all. The problem was with me. I was not doing a good job as a shepherd. Nine out of my ten sheep were easy and did the right thing, but this one needed a bit of extra love and special attention.
It’s the same in God’s family or our own family. We are all unique. Sometimes we have people in our family that are a bit messy or a bit difficult to love. In our culture, and sadly even in some churches, these ‘odd balls’ (and let’s face it, we are all odd balls at times!) can be left behind or left out. But this is not the example Jesus gave to us. He told parables about the shepherd leaving his flock of ninety-nine sheep to find the one sheep that has been lost (Luke 15:1-7). Or about a father continuing to love, to wait for, and to forgive his prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32). The pattern right throughout Scripture is that God is patient, faithful, and gracious towards us. This is why we must be patient, faithful and gracious to one another.
God has given us one simple job – to love Him and our neighbours as ourselves. So often in life, we can lose sight of the big picture. We prioritise less important things, justifying to ourselves somehow these ‘things’ might even be doing God’s will, when we are just missing the mark. Ultimately, one day the litmus test will be applied to all of us, and we will know if we have prioritised the right things in life. I was remiss in my duties as a shepherd, but fortunately, we can put our faith in Jesus who is the perfect shepherd and will never lose the sheep entrusted to His care.
Pete Humphreys
