Sheep

Last weekend some friends and I went to a little Norwegian farm just a 20 minute bus ride from the city center. Although the old, country home that served homemade waffles and hot chocolate was enough to make me want to stay, my favorite few minutes of the trip was watching the sheep graze. I had actually forgotten how ugly sheep are. I mean, I didn't exactly want to pet one. They're some of the most helpless animals...they can't run very fast, nor can they pick themselves up if they fall over on their backs. They get scared easily, and are susceptible to so many diseases. They are completely subjected to the care of their owner. These sheep had yellow tags clipped onto their ears so that their shepherd can easily identify them. The pasture they were grazing on was rather hilly, and small. I desperately wanted to ask one of them if they were content with how their shepherd cared for them. Is it o.k. with them that they must wear these old-fashioned bells around their necks that never stop ringing? I can imagine that would get rather old after a while...

All of this made me think about St. Paul, and how he bragged about belonging to the "Great Shepherd." I think it's absolutely hilarious that humans are compared to sheep in the scripture. I can see someone getting extremely offended by this. But I actually think it's stunningly beautiful that humans are so helpless, and whether we admit it or not, are greatly in need of a shepherd. There is so much shame in our culture around this word "need." Ironically, the more we admit our helplessness, the stronger we are. The Kingdom of God is full of so many oxymora, no wonder one must be a child in order to enter.

"God did not tell us to follow him because he needed our help, but because he knew that loving him would make us whole."

-St. Irenaeus