The past few days I have been reading a book called The Roar Within by Brent Henderson. It is sort of a cross between Wild at Heart by John Eldredge and Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom with Marlin Perkins. 🙂 Brent’s ministry is really devoted to men and he loves to big game hunt, so references to that passion are many. Granted, it is a book for men-about men recognizing what trips them up and stepping up to be a man…God’s man.

He says that there are 5 dangerous sins which trip men up and he uses dangerous animals in an African safari to illustrate his point. Those animals are the rhinoceros, lion, cape buffalo, elephant, and leopard.  They are called man killers because of the difficulty in hunting them. But Brent compares the sins that take a man down to those five animals. It is not my purpose here to get into those sins or animals.

Instead, I have a question to pose to you: if someone asked you what animal would describe you-from all the animal kingdom-what one would you choose?

A lion? An eagle? A workhorse? A thoroughbred? A mole? A rabbit? A dolphin or a whale?

How about a sheep? No way you say. Sheep are dumb. They are easily scared. They are like the blind leading the blind (one goes off a cliff chances are good the rest will follow).  They are easily disoriented. They are defenseless. (What are they going to do? B-a-a-a-a at a threat?) You get the point.

And yet, what did Jesus compare us to? You guessed it…sheep.

“My sheep hear my voice and follow.”

“My sheep know my voice.”

“All we like sheep have gone astray.” (Is. 53:6)

We are like sheep.  They may not be the brightest light bulb or sharpest tool in the shed, but they know their Master’s voice. They stay close to the Shepherd and find Him to be all they need.

It’s not a putdown to be called a sheep. In fact, that just might be the best animal to be.