If you can now picture a flock of sheep out in a green pasture in spring time contentedly grazing, but as spring turns to summer, something else comes on the scene. Bugs, flies and all kinds of insects have hatched and become pests to the sheep. If you have ever worked around livestock in the summer, you know how bad this can get. It can become, not only distracting, but dangerous.
There are insects that will try desprately to lay their eggs in the sheep’s nose and others attack the eyes and ears. In bad cases, sheep bang their heads against trees and objects to try to relieve themselves of these pests. They become very distracted with this problem and begin to lose weight and eventually become weak and sick. In the worst cases, they can even die because of insect attacks, especially where infection sets in.. What then is the solution?
What is more is that they now become more vulnerable to the large predators that are prowling around to seize an oppurtunity to carry away a lamb. So this can be a most challenging situation even in the middle of green pastures and cool waters.
Once again we see the sheep are in need of something more than they can produce. Certainly this reminds us of ourselves as people. This is why we need the Good Shepherd because we are not capable of survival on our own in our spiritual life. Thank God there is an answer, both for the sheep and us.
Let There Be Life 