A Carload Of Lambs ... It's A Calling

Common Sense Commentary: In God's work, His church, everybody has a calling. The nursery is one, the Sunday School is another, and getting them there is another ... with Mom and Dad.

When I was a boy in the sandy, mesquite country of West Texas, cattle, sheep and horses were a common sight. Many people still rode horses to town. Quite regularly we would see an old farm wagon pulled by a team of mules or work horses. Just as often, there would be some wind-blown, suntanned cowboy driving a herd of cattle or working at a flock of sheep down the dusty roads around Sweetwater .... and sometimes right through town.

I'll always remember the first job offer I ever had, when I was about six years old. A local rancher had hired an older boy to take eight or ten sheep across town to fresh pasture. One of these was just a lamb which the boy was going to have to carry on the horse with him. The boy then hired me to sit on the back of the horse and hold the lamb while he tended to the sheep.

As we made our way slowly across Sweetwater, that little lamb wriggled, kicked, bleated, and wet on me. He didn't want to ride that horse or the boy holding him. He wanted his Momma ... NOW. His elders were just about as difficult .... since you can't really "drive" sheep .... or lead them very easily either. It was quite a job keeping that little flock headed in the right direction.They would stop to graze, or dart to the side and "spook" every time a dog barked or a Model T or "A" car passed. But .... it was our responsibility to deliver them safely to the pasture where their owner had "commissioned" us to take them.

By now, you probably see what I am "driving" at and where I am going with this little analogy.In every neighborhood in America there are hundreds of little lambs and straying sheep which God has commissioned us to round up in Sunday School or Church, teach, and get to heaven safely. They don't usually want to go on the trip. They don't all realize we are trying to help them to better places and better things. But we must continue, nevertheless, to invite them, encourage them, pray for them, and even "carry" them in our own cars (with the above mentioned complications) to fulfill our responsibility to God and to those precious, little lambs. ...
and their fleet footed, easily distracted parents.

"Bringing in the sheep, bringing in the sheep; we shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheep." I know, I know ..."Bringing in the sheves..."

Pass It On. RB