Hans Persoon- 2017

We lease our farm to a shepherd who has raised Merino sheep on it for about 11 years now. Through these years, we have gotten used to watching the seasonal cycle of new lambs being born each early spring during our Easter season. My son Andrew and another employee are responsible to my tenant for all aspects of their care and well-being year round.

I have learned much about sheep by observing their working with them and appreciate them more especially this time of year. As most of you know that the Bible references shepherding, sheep and lambs as the most common analogy in both the Old and New Testaments because that industry was so important to the people God was speaking to at those times. What a better way for them to understand what Jesus was promising and doing for them for their benefit. Jesus says how He knows each one of us by name and goes ahead of us to lead us, and we follow because we recognize His voice as He is our shepherd and we are His sheep (John 10:3-4).

I see that in practice when Andrew calls the sheep here on the farm, they follow him but when I try they just look at me and stand because they don’t recognize me. But yet sheep are vulnerable animals too that lack sense at times and get themselves in dangerous situations. They can get stuck in deep mud or fall through thin ice and drown.

Since they have few means of defending themselves, they are susceptible to attacks by coyotes too so they need a shepherd’s vigilance to protect them.

We too are vulnerable in that way to sin if we don’t recognize and follow our Shepherd Jesus Christ. It is our faith and belief in Him to always follow that we have the assurance from God that we will be called through His gate for eternal life. It is during this season that God’s promise is renewed as we celebrate the sacrificial death of his Son Jesus Christ on the cross by bearing our sins and His glorious resurrection to new life for us. Jesus Christ as our Good Shepherd has laid down His life for His sheep, and for that, we are eternally thankful. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia. “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me.” (John 10:14)