Day 1:
The King of love my Shepherd is
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd; I know My sheep and My sheep know Me— just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father—and I lay down My life for the sheep” (John 10: 11-15).
The storm that raged on for three days drowned out all other sound but the fury of the elements, so it wasn’t until Day 4 that my cousin Melissa finally heard the piteous cries coming from the trees flanking the mountains on the edge of the farm.
Going to the garden to investigate she found the first of the baby kids, hungry and soaking wet. Cradling the poor thing in her arms, Melissa took the kid inside the farmhouse, dried her off, gave her a bottle of warm milk, and continued to nurse her through the next few hours.
Several hours later, Melissa and another cousin Santa, who had joined the "rescue mission", followed the sound of new cries and found a second kid lying on the wet ground, crying in pain. She had been badly injured, and a hole in her leg had become infested with maggots. Santa patiently removed them and cleansed the area.
It was not difficult to piece together what had happened. The “momma goat”, heavy in labor, had apparently tried to escape the stray dogs that constantly chased the mountain herds. She had wandered too close to the edge, and as the babies were born, they fell down the mountain slopes and into the trees below. Trapped by the dogs and the storm, the momma goat remained on the mountain while the babies, stuck in the trees, desperately clung to life for three days in the raging storm. Until Melissa’s rescue mission.
I couldn’t help chuckling when I heard the names Santa had given the kids—Lucy and Jane. Melissa was too young to know the song and "moonlight game"—popular in my childhood years—but I was almost certain it had been Santa's inspiration:
Lucy and Jane* will soon come home (darlin’) Soon come home (darlin’) Soon come home Lucy and Jane will soon come home Into the beautiful garden
(I hear you singing, Caribbean readers!)
*Some variations are Jane and Louisa, or Jane and Matilda instead of Lucy and Jane
I just love a good, heartwarming “rescue story”, don’t you? Reminds me of the ultimate rescue story! It’s about the One who came on a rescue mission to save fallen humanity.
Jesus alone is our only hope for rescue. He contrasts Himself with the “the hired hand,” who “abandons the sheep and runs away” in the face of danger (John 10:12). But Jesus said of Himself, “I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). He tells a beautiful parable to show the depths of His compassionate love and grace:
“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep’…” (Luke 15:4-6).
In this dark, unsettling, chaotic, world, the ferocious wolves of evil constantly tear at our heels and threaten to send us plummeting down the treacherous slopes of darkness and utter despondency. Jesus alone can rescue us. He alone can cleanse our wounds, washing away the maggots of sin, despair and destruction.
The Good Shepherd always hears the cries of our hearts above the noise of the storm.
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