A little girl lost her front teeth and it caused her to talk with a lisp. One day her grandmother was reading to her from the King James Version of the Bible. She read such words as ‘sayeth’ and ‘hath’ and ‘doth’ and so on.
After a while, the little girl exclaimed, “So God had his teeth out, too!”
I always wondered why the King James Version read like that . . .
A family moved from a little apartment to a big house in the country. A friend asked the eight‑year‑old‑son, “How do you like your new house?”
He said, “We love it. I have my own room. My brother has his own room. My sisters have their own rooms. But poor Mom, she’s still in with Dad.”
Poor Mom, indeed . . .
Four‑year‑old Andrew spilled something on the carpet. His mother responded with a screaming tirade.
Andrew looked up and said: “Mommy, you forgot to ask Jesus to help you be nice today, didn’t you?” (1)
Welcome on this Mother’s Day, 2014. It’s not easy being a Mom. We all know that. I read about a study recently that shows that by the time a child reaches 18, a mother has had to handle some 18,000 hours of extra child-generated work. In fact, says this study, women who never have children enjoy the equivalent of an extra three months a year in leisure time!
James Dobson tells about a time he came home when his son, Ryan, was a small baby. It had been a terrible day for his wife, Shirley. Ryan had been sick, and had cried all day long.
Once, as she was changing his diapers, the telephone rang and Shirley reached over to answer it before fastening up his diapers. Just then Ryan had an attack of diarrhea.
Shirley cleaned up that mess and put him in clean, sweet-smelling clothes. Then she took him into the living room and fed him. As she was burping him he threw up all over himself, and her, and the couch, too.
Dobson writes, “When I came home I could smell the aroma of motherhood everywhere.”
Shirley cried out to him, “Was all of this in my contract?” (2)
It’s not easy being a Mom. Or a Dad. Love is costly business. Ask our Heavenly Parent if love is not costly. After all, “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son . . .”
It always strikes me as significant when Father’s Day or Mother’s Day falls on a Sunday when our lessons for the day center on one of the many texts in our Scripture that compares our relationship with God to that of sheep with the Good Shepherd. The image of the Good Shepherd is not nearly as meaningful as is that of a Heavenly Father, or Heavenly Parent, but it is a biblical tradition that goes back many centuries.
It was Jesus who introduced humanity to the idea of God as Abba, Daddy. God is our Heavenly Parent. The Old Testament contains no such concept, though there are a few passages that hint at such a relationship. One such passage is Hosea 11 which reads like this: “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son . . . It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms; I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love. To them I was like one who lifts a little child to the cheek, and I bent down to feed them” (Hosea 11:1-4).
Such passages which compare God to a parent are rare in the Hebrew Bible. Instead, God’s love and care are compared to that of a Shepherd who tends his sheep with affection. That is true in both the Old Testament and the New.
There are few passages in Scripture more prized than Psalm 23. The New King James Version translates it like this: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord. Forever.” Those words have brought comfort and assurance to millions of people over the ages.
Pastor John Killinger tells of meeting a young dancer several years ago who told about being in a terrible car accident that put her in the hospital for months. Her leg was in a cast and suspended on weights and pulleys, and she was immobile for weeks and weeks.
Killinger asked how she, a dancer, could stand that kind of immobility for so long. “I would have died,” she said, “except for one thing. Every day, sometimes several times a day, I mentally danced the twenty-third psalm. It is so beautiful! It gave me the patience to wait.” (3)
The twenty-third psalm has had that kind of effect on many people over the years. However, it’s not as comforting as knowing we are God’s children. Truthfully, it’s not entirely comforting to think of ourselves as God’s sheep.
In describing sheep, Kent Hughes once wrote: “Among the animal kingdom sheep seem to have come out on the short end. From all accounts they are of limited intelligence. When it comes to finding food, they are definitely uncreative. As creatures of habit, they will follow paths through desolate places even though not far away is excellent forage. Sheep are also given to listless wandering . . . There are even accounts of their walking into an open fire! Shepherds confirm that they are timid and stubborn. They can be frightened by the most ridiculous things; though at other times nothing can move them. They are absolutely defenseless . . .”
Pastor Edward Markquart notes that sheep really are dumb animals. Part of this is due to their strong herd instincts. If one sheep goes over a cliff, the whole herd will go over the cliff as well. Their herd instinct is so strong that a pot of food is set out for the sheep, if the lead sheep did not eat from that pot of food, all the other sheep would die of starvation. Sheep are dumb animals. Not because they are unintelligent, but because the herd instinct is so strong they follow the lead sheep and do whatever the lead sheep does. Their herd instinct is stronger than their intelligence. (4)
Sounds like some people, doesn’t it? Whatever the rest of the crowd is doing becomes their norm, no matter how foolish.
Kitty Anderson of Lakewood, California tells about a friend of hers named Jerry, whose parents own a sheep farm. Frequently each spring Jerry would take a few days off from work to look for sheep. Kitty asked him why he would have to look for sheep. Don’t they know how to get home?
Jerry told her that whenever a pregnant ewe goes into labor, she immediately sits down. But if she is facing downhill when she sits, she will stay in that direction, fighting against gravity to push the lamb out of the womb. If no one helps her, she will die in that position rather than simply turn around.
Jerry said every night his family has to carefully count the pregnant sheep. When even one ewe is missing, the whole family goes out to search for her. They either bring her home or stay with her until her labor is over. If the weather is harsh, they have to build a shelter around her, while using their bodies to keep her warm.
Kitty Anderson writes, “I am like that stubborn animal. I face trials with the attitude that I will conquer the obstacle myself. All I have to do is stop for a minute, look to my Shepherd, and I will discover that I can solve my problem by simply turning around. God has a simple solution already prepared for me. I am not the solution maker, my Shepherd is.” (5)
It’s not comforting to be compared to a sheep. They can be quite dumb sometimes. But it is good to know we have a Shepherd.
Pastor Charles Heins says he loves that place in Psalm 23 where it says “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.” He says he imagines two angels, one named goodness and one named mercy, and everywhere he goes they follow him, and protect him.
He says he had the chance to experience this first hand. He was travelling to Chicago one time and saw an elderly man and his wife pulled over to the side of the road in their truck waving for help. So, of course, he stopped and asked what was wrong.
The elderly man told him he was a pastor, and he and his wife were on their way to a town up the road, and were about to run out of gas, and was wondering if Heins could give him a ride to the nearest gas station. Heins said, sure, but since the elderly man had not run out of gas yet, Heins suggested that he get back in his truck, and drive towards the next station, and he would follow behind them, and if he ran out of gas, he would take him to get gas from there, but at least they would be closer.
The elderly man agreed and thanked him. They drove more than 20 miles, and Heins watched the older gentleman as he would look in his rear view mirror and wave to him from time to time, as he followed him.
The truck never did run out of gas, they made it all the way to the gas station. At the station the old pastor thanked him again, and said, “Just knowing you were behind us, just in case we did run out of gas, allowed my wife and me to drive without worry because we knew you were behind us.”
Heins says, “That’s how God works also. ‘Surely Goodness and Mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.’” (6)
It’s not very comforting being called God’s sheep even though we may act like sheep sometimes, but it means everything in the world to know that we have a Shepherd.
It is especially good to know the Shepherd knows us each by name. It is an amazing truth, but just as we love each of our children individually and we would do anything for them, so God knows each of us intimately. Even the very hairs of our head are counted said Jesus on one occasion (Luke 12:7).
A man once visited a large sheep ranch in Australia at the time of shearing. He related that during the tour his guide took a baby lamb from its pen and placed it with thousands of other sheep where the noise of their bleating and the shouting of the shearers was absolutely deafening.
The animal, which had not yet been weaned, looking dazed, remained still for a moment. Then, realizing it had been separated from its familiar surroundings, it began to let out weak, distressed baas. The faint cries were answered immediately by its mother even though she was at the far end of the enclosure. As the feeble little creature began to walk slowly toward her, the old ewe rushed to meet it as if no other sheep were present. Amid the noise and confusion she still heard the pitiful bleating of her own frightened offspring. (7)
If a dumb sheep can be that attentive to her offspring, do you think that you and I can ever be beyond God’s attention? The Good Shepherd sees us as if there were no other sheep of His in the whole world. We may not like being thought of as sheep, but we are glad to know we have a Shepherd who sees our needs and responds to our needs in such an intimate, individual way.
Philip Parham tells of watching a modern shepherd in the mid-east. At the end of the day, the shepherd would stand at the door of the sheepfold and examine each sheep as it came in from the pasture. If there were any cuts or bruises, he would rub soothing oil on the hurt places. The oil would help heal the hurt. Also, as each sheep came in, the shepherd would dip down into a barrel of clear, cool water and give it a brimful cup of water to drink. He would anoint with oil and give a cup that ran over with water to refresh the tired body. (8)
“The Lord is my Shepherd,” but much more than that. After all, what shepherd, no matter how conscientious will lay down his life for his sheep? That is the analogy that Jesus used (John 10:11). A shepherd might inadvertently give his life protecting his sheep. We could understand that.
But what shepherd would voluntarily lay down his life in place of his sheep? You would do that for your child, but not for a sheep. That takes the love of a parent, not the love of a shepherd. That is why Jesus taught us to pray, “Abba,” Daddy. He could just as easily have taught us to say, “Mom,” if he were in a different culture.
So, yes, the Lord is our Shepherd. And thank God for that! But the Lord is more than a shepherd. He loves us even more than our parents love us or we love our children. He loves us with a love that is unimaginable and for that we can truly be thankful.
1. Christian Parenting Today.
2. Melvin M. Newland, http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/a-mothers-love-melvin-newland-sermon-on-mothers-day-35609.asp.
3. http://www.preaching.com/sermons/11567179/.
4. http://www.sermonsfromseattle.com/series_a_all_we_like_sheep_have_gone_astray.htm.
5. http://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2003/january/14106.html.
6. Our Guide through Perils
7. Illusaurus
8. Letting God: Christian Meditations for Recovering Persons (San Francisco: Harper, 1987.)