the thing about sheep…

Last night, I was reading in a Bridal magazine of all places, this,

When it comes to a wedding think of your guests as sheep. They need to be led.

The last sentence qualifies the first, and makes it much less insulting.

Then this morning, I flip open a book I’ve been trudging through since June, and it’s about this very topic, sheep. The title of today’s lesson, “The Lord is my Shepherd”

Now if you’re like me, you perhaps have Psalm 23 memorized and you know that these words are meaningful. But that’s the annoying thing with my walk, things get too mundane and I don’t stop to even realize what I’m saying and believing. Today, I took a closer look.

Psalm 23 opens like this, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.”

You shall not want? What David? Really? Not even a new staff? Or a new gate? Or some new tunics?

But as I was reminded this morning, “God designed us as we are so that we would see our need of Him. In Him, we find all that we need.” -Kay Arthur

But yet, I don’t think I do find all that I need in God, I think I tend to try to find it everywhere else, even in friendships, my parents, my job, my roles, etc…

But, I was reminded, I am so much like a sheep, I need to be led.

Kay Arthur writes;

Sheep are the dumbest of amimals. They are helpless, timid, and feeble. They require constant attention and meticulous care. Sheep have little means of self defense.

I find so much reality in that, I need so much care, I need attention. But, I’m seeking it in the wrong places all the time.

But this is reality;

If sheep do not have the constant care of a shepherd, they will go the wrong way, unaware of the dangers at hand. They have been known to nibble themselves right off a mountainside. They will overgraze the same land and run out of food unless the shepherd leads them to new pastures. If they are not led to proper pastures, they will obliviously eat or drink things that are disastrous to them. Sheep easily fall prey to predators, and when they do, they are virtually deenseless. Sheep can also become cast down and, in that state panic and die. And so, because sheep are sheep, they need shepherds to care for them.

-Kay Arthur, Beloved: From God’s Heart to Yours

I see so much of myself in that! In need of a shepherd to lead me, to keep me safe from predators, to prevent me from falling off the mountain, to keep me away from danger, to prevent me from being “cast down.”