Monday 4th May - We Like Sheep

DAILY BYTE

When I was in elementary school, every summer, I used to go to church camp for a week, and this was no ordinary church camp. It was church musical camp ... I was just that cool. We would go to the bush, sleep in mosquito-infested cabins and spend the whole week learning a dramatic musical production, which we would then perform for our parents and for a local retirement home.

One year, the chosen musical made a particularly strong impression on me, and perhaps it was because the theme song went like this: We like sheep, we like sheep, we like sheep ‘cause sheep is what we are. ‘Cause sheep is what we are, we think they’re the best by far…” And so it went. This kind of song has a strange habit of becoming lodged in one’s memory.

But in all seriousness, we do like sheep, don’t we? I used to beg my parents to buy me a sheep – a plea that seemed to fall on deaf ears. But we enjoy pastoral images of lambs peacefully grazing in a well-contained herd while shepherds lazily lounge nearby, catching rays of golden sun.

But, as my parents were quick to remind me when I expressed my desire to own one, sheep are not the brightest of bulbs in the barnyard. There is a reason that sheep need a shepherd! In his book, A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23, former sheepherder Phillip Keller says that “the behavior of sheep and human beings is similar…Our mass mind (or mob instincts), our fears and timidity, our stubbornness and stupidity, our perverse habits are all parallels of profound importance.”

It’s not the most flattering picture of humankind, but I think we can all identify with at least part of that description.

And so, this may seem a goofy question, but consider today in what ways (both positive and negative) your behaviour resembles a sheep’s. Also ask yourself, in what ways (both positive and negative) you find your life resembling that of a shepherd. This week, we will be exploring God’s description of both himself and his people as shepherds and sheep, or lambs. To have a full picture of who God is and who we are, as his people, it is crucial for us to explore this sheep imagery!

So, do you like sheep?

GUIDING SCRIPTURE

Mark 6:34 (NIV)

When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.