On Sheep and Men

My in-laws have a small sheep ranch out near Albany. Out there, I’ve seen the miracle of birth during lambing season, I’ve learned that sheep poop gets EVERYWHERE and that sheep are about the DUMBEST animals on the face if the planet.

No, seriously. They are REALLY dumb. Someone recently told me a story of a ewe who jumped up onto a 55-gallon drum and got stuck...she simply couldn’t get down off of a barrel. Apparently, this stupid wool-ball sat there balanced on this barrel with her legs dangling until she starved to death. Not too smart, eh?

Sure, we’re pretty smart creatures...arguably the smartest ones on the planet. To quote Douglas Adams :

"On the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much - the wheel, New York, wars and so on - whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man - for precisely the same reasons."

But seriously, when it comes down to it, God has put us in charge of this planet and everything on it. We’re the stewards of this world until He comes again.

So this begs the question in my mind: if we’re so smart and sheep are so dumb, why does Christ refer to us as His sheep? In the secular world, people who blindly follow someone or something are sometimes referred to as "sheeple." Atheists will derisively refer to Christians as sheep, citing the stupidity, timidity and flock behavior of domestic sheep. So, given this, why are we sheep?

It doesn’t sound like something one would WANT to be, but I for one don’t mind being a sheep in the Christian sense.

Let's first look at the sheep.

Sheep (Ovis aries) are quadrupedal ruminants. They are fully herbivorous, and have cloven hooves. People raise them for their wool and meat and are often used in biological experimentation. Oh yeah, and by human standards, they’re dumber than a box of rocks.

Now, as far as sheep are concerned, they know exactly what they need to know to get by: find food, find water, reproduce, care for lambs, eliminate waste and avoid potential predators. If you set a sheep loose in a pasture, they will live their lives happily as long as they have what they think they need. Oh, sure some lambs will be taken by coyotes, some ewes will leave lambs behind, mother ewes may die, some rams will butt their children to death...but the sheep as a whole don’t usually care too much.

However, the sheep rancher (or shepherd) has a lot invested in these stupid wool-balls and he doesn’t want to lose livestock. He’ll inoculate them against disease, provide food and water for them, guide them to where they need to go, keep the lambs near their mothers and bottle-feed lambs who lose their mothers.

Jesus Christ is the Good Shepherd...the best ever. He doesn’t want to lose any "livestock," so to speak: He doesn’t want to lose a single human being to the evil one. We go through our lives in our "pasture" doing exactly what we think we need to do, but the Good Shepherd knows what we need MUCH better than we do. Like an earthly shepherd cares for his livestock, Jesus guides us, feeds us (spiritually and physically), "innoculates" us against evil...and honestly, He is God...He is much wiser than I could ever be.

Now, the analogy only goes so far...for example, Christians shouldn’t just blindly follow religious leaders. We should instead learn everything we can about the Lord through scripture and prayer and judge everything in light of scripture.

Still, I’d rather trust the Good Shepherd over any human being, no matter how smart they think they are. After all, they are sheep too, whether they like it or not...they just may be in the wrong pasture.

Martian Death Flu

Years ago a very funny smart alec by the name of Dave Barry wrote an article about the flu. Here’s an excerpt:

"We have the flu. I don’t know if this particular strain has an official name, but if it does, it must be something like ’Martian Death Flu’. You may have had it yourself. The main symptom is that you wish you had another setting on your electric blanket, up past ’HIGH,’ that said ’ELECTROCUTION.’"

My recent (and rare) bout of flu is nothing like what Mr. Barry describes, but I can sympathize.

Now, I have a list of questions that I want to ask God once I go to heaven. Among these questions are: Why are we here? Why do people insist on hating each other? What the heck is up with the platypus?

I have a new addition to this list: Why are there viruses? I mean, in all my years of studying science, I have never found even one positive effect of a virus. As one scientist put it, a virus is "bad news packed in protein."

Perhaps the answer lies in one of the "Deadly Sins"...pride. We as human beings have delved the depths of the ocean, walked on the moon and probed the outer reaches of our solar system. Some scientists have even been so proud as to supplant the Lord with worship of science.

We are, as a whole, a VERY prideful species of beings.

The fact that we can, at any time, be laid low by a barely microscopic chunk of genetic material is very humbling to even the staunchest atheist. As a Christian, I know that I can take the lesson that this little virus teaches me and apply it to the rest of my life, thus being even more of a witness for the Lord.

Too bad more people don’t see it this way.