Lessons from Sheep

Today, we were given a beautiful gift and demonstration not only of God’s power, but also of His faithfulness. RVL and the filming crew were hoping that we could see a flock of sheep in the Judean Wilderness (their “natural habitat” believe it or not). RVL says that he sees a decent flock in the desert on about half of his trips. However, we were told that this winter had been particularly dry, so the government had given special permission to the Bedouin to truck their sheep up to Galilee for suitable pasture. So we were not holding out hope. In the bus on the way to Arad, suddenly someone yelled to the front that there was a flock off to our left! There was, but it was quickly disappearing over the next hill over. We got off the bus fast, but the camera crew had to find us and catch up, too. We hurried over the hill and the shepherds (two little girls—not that unusual) were quite shy (as is usually the case) and they were leading their flock—a sizable one—farther away. We kept on hiking over the hills, and when we came around a corner, there was the flock, just across from us. We stood at a distance watching it move from right to left across the hill opposite us. It was wonderful! The shepherdesses were talking to the flock (leading by word, not stick!) and tossing stones—to the right and the left of the sheep, but not at them—to guide them to where they should go. But still the camera crew wasn’t there (hey, it’s not easy to lug all that equipment around). We figured they would just round the bend and be gone, but as the crew arrived with the equipment, the flock turned around and marched across the same hill opposite us again, only left to right. The crew set up quickly and got some pretty good footage, and all along, we were blessed by the experience—hearing the shepherds lead the sheep and even seeing one lie down in the green pasture (amazing!). As they disappeared from view (this time for good), we offered a prayer of thanksgiving to God. Little did we know that the experience was not over. Just as we were packing up to leave, we turned around and a totally different flock of sheep was coming along the hill behind us! So we got the whole experience again! Amazing! And all in a year when the sheep have supposedly been shipped out. We certainly serve a great God. He is good! And His love endures forever!