Charley and her Flock

Jack owned an Icelandic ram that mated with the ewes of our farm.  Our Shetland ewe, Dolly, gave birth to Charley, so named because Charley came into the world like a charley horse.  Marshal and I had to push and pull to set Dolly free from her charley horse.  Charley later had a little black lamb of her own.  Charley and her little black lamb were traded to Jack for Kune Kune pigs last summer.  Jack was so pleased to add Charley and her black lamb to his own small flock of sheep.  Jack is a kind shepherd, but he gives his flock boundless freedom to roam the mountain.  So the first week of February, Charley, a headstrong ewe, led the flock away from her own mountain, as lead sheep.  Charley left the shepherd, shelter, food, and safety, a shepherd unto herself.

Jeremiah 50 speaks of the peril of sheep that forget their resting place.

6 “My people have been lost sheep.
Their shepherds have led them astray;
They have turned them away on the mountains.
They have gone from mountain to hill;
They have forgotten their resting place.

Charley came to her birth place, surely a place of safety!  The familiarity magnetized her to the place.  She would not come into the fold, but she ran her wild flock around the perimeter for two days, running up and down the highway and up the steep bluffs of the hillsides!  The shepherd left feed for them on the hillside, as the nights were cold, but they would not come to the call.  Just before dark of evening, Jack miraculously caught Charley in a lasso that was thrown for the ram's head.  The ram backed out of the loop as it slipped over Charley's head.  Jack was filled with thanksgiving for answered prayer at such a marvelous coincidence.  Charley was the lead sheep, so the others followed her all the way to our barn for overnight refuge.  But we could not pen them.  Charley was penned and tied, but the others bolted and went back on the run.  Sheep without a shepherd, not lost, but wild, flighty, untrusting, and thus would not submit or come under protection of the master.  They instead put themselves back out on the highway and spent the night hours on the hillside among the predators.  An unseen Hand protected them from the coyotes and mountain lions that prowl under the cloak of darkness.  At first light, they were still there, and Jack led Charley back to the hillside and gathered the other sheep behind.  A shepherdess took up the rear guard.

Ezekiel 34 is a passage rich with imagery of the Shepherd coming to gather His scattered and stray sheep.  The sheep do not know the Shepherd and their resting place as they ought, but He knows them!

I was encouraged by these pictures.  Even the wayward, straying sheep are known by the shepherd.  They are his.  He lays his claim, even if he has to compassionately put a strong uncomfortable cord around the neck so that she falls in line and leads the others where they need to follow behind the master.