For the love of sheep

It’s springtime here in the Yorkshire dales, but we are all wrapped up like its winter. How do I know that it’s spring? Well, each day I glimpse new lambs in the fields around my home. I love sheep, in fact I’m rather dotty about them and there is a reason for that. My ancestors going back hundreds of years were shepherds in the Welsh mountains around Machynlleth in Mid Wales.

My great grandfather Percy Richards was the last of them, then two generations passed. Then I became a shepherd of people, training for ministry and then pastoring in a church, all because i have a love of sheep!

I wonder what you know about sheep and their habits. Here are a few interesting things you might like to know. Firstly, they are not as dozy as one might think, they are highly intelligent. Secondly the pupils of their eyes are rectangular rather than round like ours. This is because sheep are vulnerable to predators and because of the shape of their eyes, they are able to see pretty much 360 degrees.

Sheep love to make friends and don’t like being split from their flock. They bond with each other and are capable of making a best friend. In fact, a sheep can remember both other sheep and humans for as long as two years.    

They can also make a human their friend. I have one who until the farmer moved her, would come for a cuddle. Sheep are emotional creatures, extremely sensitive to their flock and are able to recognise the emotions of humans by their facial expressions. Do smile at sheep when you see one, they will love you for it, and the lambs will see you as playmates.

Sheep don’t bite and they don’t kick. However, they do need tender care. For example in winter their fleeces can be laden down with moisture, which usually dry out and manage to keep them lovely and warm. But if the weather is continually wet, they don’t dry easily and they can get pneumonia and die.

Who is your best friend

We may have many friends, one of whom may be a best friend, but there is no earthly friend that is like Jesus. Many years ago, after going through a traumatic time, a time when I felt so alone, I was praying and got a picture of my dog Ben (now in doggy heaven). Ben loved peering under the curtains looking for me if I popped out and his eyes were so filled with longing that I would be home soon. In short, he was pining for me. As I sought the Lord over this picture, He clearly said, “I pine for you when you are not close to me”.

Staying close to Jesus

I personally don’t want to give Jesus the pain of pining for me but rather run to Him and stay close. I actually want to hear His heartbeat as I’m sure the apostle John did when he reclined at the table with Jesus(John 13:23-24).

We were created to have an intimate relationship with God (Genesis 3:8) until the fall. Moses is also described as a “Friend of God”, sharing an intimate face to face relationship with God (Exodus 33 11). He would disappear up Sinai to spend time with God and return radiant from being in God’s presence.

Yet neither Moses, David, Daniel or the Patriarchs have what we have. This is Holy Week, in which each of us will give thanks for the finished work of the cross and the new life we have through Jesus’s resurrection.

Jesus has made the way for us to enter His presence at any time, enjoy His company, rest in His presence, lean into Him, trust Him and know Him intimately. We don’t have to climb Sinai or enter a Tabernacle; He has chosen to make His tabernacle in our hearts. I find it incredible and awesome that Jesus chose me, adopted me and made my heart for His own. He then Baptised me with His Holy Spirit so that daily I can draw from the reservoir of living water that he has poured into my heart.

What is more; Jesus wants to listen to me (Philippians 4:6-7) and talks to me (John 10:27). Jesus’s friendship with me motivates my life. When my husband left, for another lady, I remember saying to the Lord: “I don’t want another person to distract me from loving you Lord”. It had to be all or nothing from that moment on in my relationship with Jesus. The more I press in, the more I want to press into knowing Jesus.

Jeremiah 29:11

Jeremiah 29:12-13 promises the reward of pursuing the Lord. “Then you will call to me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you. Then you will seek me and find me when you seek me with all of your heart. I will be found by you” declares the Lord.  The heart’s desire of our Heavenly Father: is that we seek intimacy with Him, because He wants to pour all of Himself into our hearts.

God our creator died for His creation so that He might have an intimate friendship with us. How should this motivate us? Well, we can’t keep that to ourselves, it has to be given away.

Sheep are sensitive to emotion.

Through our intimacy with Jesus we can pick up His heart. As intercessors we have a responsibility to pick up on what is on the father’s heart. He feels for those who have been treated unjustly. Today I woke up thinking of the many children within our nation who have never truly known the love of a Father, as their family life has consisted of many adult partnerships that have broken and reformed. I can feel in my own emotions how insecure those children must be. To that end, there has to be this endless calling until Jesus returns to hear His heart and pray earnestly for what causes Him to weep. 

Yet it isn’t just His sadness that we need to pick up on but His joy also, what makes Him smile. For too long in the church, we have been presented with a Jesus who never has much fun. Jesus loves fun. Lambs love playing. Let’s not be afraid of having fun especially with Jesus. Every time we see a beautiful sunset, or a field full of colour, a work of art or someone simply giving us a lovely smile. “How must Jesus feel” and respond with an even bigger smile.

Our intimacy with Jesus is transformative, it changes us into His likeness and as such we can be on the receiving end of His compassion and tenderness but we can also be that way towards other people. We can pick up on His heart for the lost, the broken and the hurting and be Jesus to them.  Sometimes that can be practical but at other times we have to believe in a miracle, or pray for total healing.

Sheep and community.

Because sheep bond with each other so well, and don’t like being split up from the herd; there is a message for us also. How important fellowship with one another is.

The early church acknowledged the importance of living as a true family. Acts 2:42. They devoted themselves to fellowship. In Acts 6 the apostles appointed seven men full of the Holy Spirit to care for the practical needs of the church. We need each other.

It is quite amazing to watch the sheep, when the shepherd tops up the grass with hay. There is one bah, then two bah’s and then three bahs (quite a cacophony) as one sheep leads the way to the bales of hay and the others follow in close proximity. They quite literally say to each other “grubs up”.

Fellowship requires us to allow ourselves to sometimes be vulnerable with each other, open, giving and to listen out for each other especially when one is struggling. We are a flock, and it’s important that we stay that way.

Sheep don’t often split up and get lost. Occasionally one will explore a hole in the fence and get out from among the flock. Once they are isolated, they can’t find their way back. So yet again it is important that not only do we keep our eyes on the shepherd but also on each other. An isolated sheep is vulnerable.

It is interesting that Jesus happily left the ninety-nine to look out for the one sheep that was lost. He knew that the ninety-nine were fine whilst together, but the lost one was in peril and subject to predator’s. Of course, Jesus was primarily referring to rescuing a totally lost sheep, who needed His redemptive love, but it is also a lesson for us to keep each other covered by prayer, loved by one another in a practical way and know that we each care deeply for the other.

Eyeballs everywhere.

I can’t imagine my eyeballs looking everywhere but sheep do it all the time primarily so that they can see the rest of the flock. Sheep are vulnerable to predators and can only defend themselves by bleating and running for cover. These gentle creatures therefore must rely ultimately on the shepherd to keep them safe. This is why when sheep graze on open pastures the shepherd has to be extra vigilant and will travel miles to check on the sheep. It is a sad day when one of his livestock is found in a ravine or trapped by snow and dies.

How often in scripture we are reminded of the care we can receive from the shepherd our precious Jesus. “He makes me lie down in green pastures and leads me beside still waters”. Jesus only takes me to the lushest pasture to feed. Sheep will contentedly graze lying down in good pasture and they are very hesitant to drink from fast flowing streams lest they fall in as they don’t swim very well.

How well Jesus the lover of our souls knows what makes us timid and afraid, which is why He calls us to rest in His perfect love for us. We are to remain close to Him and only listen for His voice and recognise Him coming towards us.

In John 10 where Jesus describes himself as the gate of the sheep. We see eye and ear connection between the shepherd and the sheep. Mostly they hear His voice and follow but as sheep make a connection between the facial expressions and the emotions of the shepherd, they see the shepherd coming towards them and will run to him. Intuitively a sheep knows who his shepherd is and will follow him. From our perspective we listen for Jesus’ voice; for His guidance and direction, but in John 10, it is in recognising the shepherds voice and remaining close to Him, that we also recognise the voice of the enemy.

Most of us will have been affected by the wrong kind of words that have been spoken over us, that have been very much the thieves and robbers, but in the maturing in of relationship with Jesus; we learn to declare over our lives what He has spoken and to adopt the 360 vision, that recognises the shepherd before the devils schemes take root.

Now is a time in which we need to hear His voice more clearly than ever, especially when we are surrounded with deception, intimidation and manipulative rhetoric and behaviours. With the increasing chaos within the world, more than ever we need to take shelter under the shadow of the Almighty, believing without doubt we are totally protected by His Almighty presence. We too need to develop 360 vision as we discern what the Holy Spirit is both doing and saying in the shaking that is taking place across the globe. We are in a season where we need to be incredibly attentive to the shepherd but also expect that as the shaking continues so will Holy Spirit activity increase.

More and more I find myself wanting to be lost in His glory. I sense that we are in a time when God wants to pour His glory upon His Bride and for them to move in healing and miracles and then He will reveal Himself through signs and wonders to a lost world and to the thousands who are looking for answers to the meaning of life.

Come on let’s get lost in His glory.

A tip from sheep. Be intelligent.

Gaze intently on Jesus.

Mary Hodson