Those Intrepid Shepherds

I heard some interesting news this last week.  While they’re having unseasonal snow in New York, I hear that New Zealanders are having blizzards of their own (Global Warming, I guess).

Anyway, a shepherd was herding his flock of sheep when a midsummer avalanche hit without warning and buried him.  It was only a little slide so no one really got too fussed, but at the end of the day when the shepherd didn’t come home, they got worried.  The search began.  

48 hours later they found him, comatose and barely alive. Fortunately, he did survive, and made a full recovery

Now here's the interesting part.

They found him only because noticed his little flock of sheep were huddled together, standing in the slide area. 

Now I think you can see the sermon coming.

Sheep are well known, for, uh ......... not much, really.  They do tend to follow well, and since they have no defensive features to speak of, they make, uhm… really great prey. They don't have a 'rescue' gene in them like Lassie, so you don’t see them running in circles and barking (or bleating) in an emergency situation. This makes them fairly “ignorable” as well, especially in New Zealand, where they outnumber people by about 5 to 1. 

So when they were observed, just standing around and waiting, the searchers decided to look. 

Jesus said, "My sheep know my voice" (John 10:27).

Maybe that was it. Maybe while he was still conscious, he had called out.   Or maybe it was the smell; we may never know. Lots of sermons there, but I’d like to think for a moment about the shepherds in our lives.

There’s Jesus, of course.  He is our Shepherd for sure and we need Him.

But what about the pastors who have committed themselves to our spiritual well-being?

Hats off to those intrepid shepherds! If you’re looking for a Biblical insight, a “spot on” sermon, a hand to hold when your life is in the balance, or just someone to smile at you when you step into church, I hope there’s a pastor within earshot.

But let’s not forget that our pastors can get cold, and tired, and buried under an avalanche of circumstances. Like that New Zealand fellow, pastors too can reach a place where it’d hard to breathe, hard to move, even hard to call out for help.

Having been married to one for 56 years, I can tell you, there are days when the only thing that keeps a pastor going is the fact that he’s been called by God. Fortunately for us, the ‘highs’ far outweigh the ‘lows’, but the ‘lows’ are real.  

Stop and consider for a moment; you can probably recall pastors in your life who were there for you when you needed a shepherd.

What can you do for them today? Maybe the best thing is to just get together with some fellow sheep and stand over him.

Just something to think about. 

Marsha