What Melvin Taught Me About the Good Shepherd

  (My friend and bible study sister, Su DeGroot, sent me an email and I asked her if I could publish it here.)

Meet Melvin, one of two little lambs born earlier this week.  Melvin has had a tough go of it in his short life.  He was born first in a little stable but then his momma decided to walk across the field before delivering his brother.

Something went wrong.  It was her first birthing and she was confused.  In the natural order of things, the ewe bonds with her lambs beautifully.  She is always near them,  protective as they drink and cuddle with her.

But Melvin was rejected by his momma and we had no idea why.  We looked it up online and found it has something to do with smell.  If a lamb gets separated during birth, dries off and loses its initial smell that the mom identifies it with, she will think it belongs to another and reject it.  Sometimes a ewe is just a bad mother; she gives birth and walks away.

Melvin spent his first hours cold and baaa-ing for his momma to come feed him.  It was heartbreaking to hear.  He got weaker as his brother nursed and got stronger.  Eventually he collapsed and was quiet.

We took him into the barn, dried him off, warmed him up and fed him from a baby bottle.  The next day we put him back in the pen but every time he got near his momma she would buck him with her head.  Now what?  Back to the internet...

"Lambs that have been rejected will go from ewe to ewe trying to steal milk to survive, usually nursing from behind.  Typically a ewe lets her lamb nurse by her side.  She smells the lamb to make sure it's hers and any intruder will get a swift butt from her head.  Together they develop a communication that helps them distinguish and identify with each other even if randomly placed in the midst of a thousand other lambs and ewes." 

"The rejected lamb will be on its own to survive.  Often you can pick them out of a fold because of their dirty heads.  They resort to stealing milk while a ewe is relieving herself and thus end up 'getting marked'.  To the lamb this is a small price to pay; he knows he must steal or die.  The lamb spends its early years craving nutrition as its stomach is never full.  It can never rest for a moment and lives with the reminder of rejection every time hunger calls.  Since the lamb is marked, it is rejected by the rest of the flock as well."

Why share this with you?  I think it is such a visual picture for us, the sheep of His pasture. 

We've all lived with rejection and experienced a gnawing spiritual hunger.  Like Melvin,  we can try to fill it on the sly, getting marked in the process.  What Melvin needed most of all was for someone to adopt him, marks and all, and nurture him.  He needed acceptance, healing, love, restoration.  Do you know a Melvin?  Perhaps you have been a Melvin.  You are not alone.

Jesus understands rejection, loneliness, hunger.  He knows what it feels like to be a 'marked man'.  Yet He chose to carry the shame and hopelessness of us all to the cross.  He chose to give His life so that we would not have to live as orphans.  He rose again so that death is defeated.  And until He comes again, He calls us to live in flocks and nurture and care for each other - no head-butting!

"Know that the Lord is God.  It is He who made us and we are His;

we are His people, the sheep of His pasture."  Psalm 100

I am the Good Shepherd; I know My sheep and My sheep know Me...

and I lay down My life for the sheep."  John 10

"His unchanging plan has been to adopt us into His own family

by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ.

And this gave Him great pleasure."  Ephesians 1

Lord, may our own marks lead us to nurture those who feel rejected and lost.  Give us compassion for them and passion for You!

Worship Warrior

"For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 

 The weapons we fight with are not weapons of the world.  On the contrary,

 they have divine power to demolish strongholds." 

 2Corinthians10:3,4

This past week we were in New Mexico with our eldest son and his family.  One of the highlights when we visit is the opportunity to worship with them on Sundays.  Mike plays drums for his church's praise team.  It's always a special treat to sing to the Lord with Lil and our three grand daughters by our side, as Mike worships on the drums.

One of the men at church mentioned he believes Mike has a spiritual gift for worship.  Like a warrior preparing for battle he beats the drums, proclaiming victory over the enemy.

I loved seeing and hearing that visual picture of victory and it got me thinking about some passages in scripture regarding praise and worship.  They are indeed weapons with divine power to demolish strongholds.

Remember Joshua and the battle of Jericho?  "...at the sound of the trumpet, when the people gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed..."  In biblical times the trumpet was used as a warning of approaching danger, to signal a time of meeting, to proclaim a new king in Israel.  But is was also used as a celebration of God as King over all the earth (Psalm 47).  Trumpets were a source of praise to the Sovereign God.

There are many stories of battles being supernaturally won in scripture:  Jehoshaphat's victory over the vast armies of the Moabites and Ammonites (2Chronicles 20) and Gideon's battle against the Midianites in Judges 7 are just two.  God's people were facing overwhelming odds and almost sure defeat, when they stopped focusing on their circumstances and instead lifted up praise to the God who rules over all the nations.  There was victory over the enemy again and again.

In the Book of Acts, Paul and Silas were thrown into prison.  About midnight they were praying and singing hymns to God (Acts 16).  Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the prison doors flew open and everyone's chains were loosed.

Psalm 149 says this about God's people, "Let the praise of God be in their mouths and a double-edged sword in their hands."  This is our battle stance:  our focus and praise on Sovereign God and the double-edged sword of His Word in our hands.

I enjoyed watching my 'worship warrior' son pouring out his heart to God as he played the drums and I thank the Lord who has brought him to this point.  He and his family have faced difficult struggles in the past and I'm sure there will be more ahead, as there will likely be for all of us.  I pray that the God who deserves all our praise continues to be his focus and his delight.

Oh - and this little extra about praising God in the midst of battle:  When the 12 tribes of Israel were in the desert, the Lord instructed them to march in a certain order.  The tribe of Judah always marched out first.  In Hebrew the word "Judah" means "praise"!

Forgetting My Father's Language

                                                               

I correspond with a brother-in-the-Lord, an American national living in a foreign country.  He is married to a woman from that country and has two young children.  Our correspondence has been entirely through email, as he has been incarcerated overseas for almost two years now. 

Recently I received an email from him that he has given me permission to share. 

"I just want to talk to my children.  Over time away from my family my son has forgotten the English language.  Every so often he comes to visit me here.

I so enjoy those visits.  I love him so much.  Being six years old and a normal kid, he has remembered how to ask for a toy.  Never do I say no and I happily authorize his new toy every time.  He's my son and I love him!  However, I do wish we could speak together about heavier and deeper things than the next gift; but he's forgotten his father's language from lack of use.

The sadness from not being able to talk to my own child, my own flesh and blood, is sometimes overwhelming.  That sadness is often offset by my joy at seeing his pleasure in receiving a gift that I send him.  The joy it brings me is the reason I say yes when he asks.  Sometimes I send him things that will bring him joy before he even asks.

I think of my heavenly Father and the parallel between my relationship with Him.  Jeannie, do you ever feel the same about your relationship with our Lord?  How many times has our Father been thrilled to give us what we shallowly ask for simply because it gladdens His heart to give joy to His children.  How many times has He sent us unasked-for blessings because He is happy to do so?

When I am reunited with my son he will assuredly become proficient once again in my language and I long for that day.  How much more my heavenly Father must long for me to communicate proficiently in the language of heaven.  It is a language of love, spirit, hope, the written word, and joy.

As I will teach my son English when we are reunited, God will teach us the language of heaven when He comes.  But we need not wait.  The language and love of heaven can be in our hearts today.  The Spirit of God longs to put it there.

Our Father longs to hear from us; even if it is only to ask for a toy.  Talk to Him today!"

"Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake?  Or if he asks for an egg will give him a scorpion?  If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will our Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!

Luke 11:11-13