A LADY was once spending a vacation in Switzerland, and in her mountain walks she came upon a sheepfold. She stood and watched very interestedly, for there was one poor sheep lying there moaning and looking very sick. She saw his leg was broken, and full of pity she asked how it had happened.
“I broke it myself,” said the shepherd sadly.
She was even more pitiful, for she thought it must have been an accident.
“No,” said the shepherd, “it was done on purpose; it was the only way. That sheep will follow me after wards, when I have nursed it an got it better, and it will always come at my call then. But before it wouldn’t. It was always wandering off into dangerous places, and it wouldn’t even come when I called. It would have been killed certainly if I hadn’t done that.”
Yes, sometimes we poor human sheep will all have our own way, will stray into dangerous paths until the Good Shepherd Himself has to send sorrow and pain into our lives, so that at last we will hear His voice and follow Him.
How much better to hearken to the voice of the Good Shepherd now, and then to follow wherever He may lead.
ML-08/26/1962