Sheep…

 Sheep….

For several years as our children were growing up, we had sheep, Suffolk and Merino.

Now the Suffolk were very independent, roaming around the pasture at will. My daughters worked with them, bottle feeding lambs until they were so tame that they thought their home was our front porch…(which it wasn’t)…

The Merinos, on the other hand, stayed in a flock, always moving together as a group…very protective, watchful…

Their wool is different…the Suffolk’s was coarser, while the merino was fine and soft…much nicer to work with…

My husband would shear them if needed, but he would rather hire shearers to come and shear them…they would plop them on their back, tummy up, run those electric shears around and down the bodies until a whole fleece would lay on the floor…a pure white sheep would get up and run free from the constraints on the shearer and the fleece…the fleece was then bundled up and added the huge, long burlap wool bag to be sold later…

As a child, my step grandfather had sheep as well, when their fleeces were piled into the bags, we would get into the bag and stump and stuff and condense the wool to get as many fleeces as possible into the bags before they were closed and sewn with heavy twine…

Whenever I read the following verses, those past scenes come to mind…those Suffolk sheep were perfect examples of “going their own way”…they had a mind of their own, wandering around, not staying in any group…and leading little, cute lambs was fun, as they gambol around, jumping, playing …not knowing their end…the sheep being sheared on their backs are quiet, lying helplessly as the shearer does his work…

Thank YOU for speaking to our hearts ….thank YOU for taking on our punishment, being wounded for our healing…

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. 

We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 

He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

Isaiah 53:5-7

https://petkeen.com/popular-types-of-sheep-breeds/

https://www.bristolpetitions.com/are-there-sheep-in-israel/