it’s the first day of school, or it’s a team-building exercise at work, or it’s some cheesy church function, and it’s time to get to know one another.  and the slip of paper before you asks:

if you were an animal, what animal would you be?

[i’ll give you a second to think about it…]

ok, now.  show of hands:  how many of you chose SHEEP?

not me, you’re thinking.  smelly, bleating sheep – that’s baaaaad. (sorry – couldn’t resist).

but guess what?   you’re a sheep. a baby one, at that.

you – the tough guy in the Harley Davidson tee and the faux-hawk hairstyle

– you’re a sheep.

and you — the primped lady with the perfect highlights

and the shoes that cost a car payment?

better buy a second pair – you’re a four-legged, wooly, lamb.

and me, too.

and we ought to drop to our knees in gratitude … for our sheepdom is nothing short of a miracle.

there are days when i roar like a lion – when the dishes get done and the bills get paid and the world runs exactly as i have commanded it to.  and  these days are dangerous … because they lie.  they leave me thinking that i’m standing on my own two feet … when, really, i have four.  hooves.

and so, typically, only on the days when the bills are piling up and the dishes are piling up and the snow is piling up and i feel lonely and powerless and scared – only then, can i see truth.

and the truth does what it always does.

for the truth of my sheepdom guarantees me the protection of a tend-er.  did you catch that?  a tender.

and he is there with me then, my Jesus.  he invites me into his lap.  he pries open my fingers and gently removes the anxieties that i clutch, the grief that i carry so heavy.  he strokes my hair.  he calls me by name. his sheep.  most fortunate of creatures.

i am woman, hear me baaaa.

“He will tend his flock

like a shepherd;

he will gather the lambs

in his arms;

he will carry them

in his bosom,

and gently lead

those that are with young.”

Isaiah 40:11