Stay Close to the Shepherd

It’s interesting that on more than one occasion, the Bible compares Christians to sheep. I can’t say that I’m really happy with that, but I have to live with it. Sheep, after all, are not the most intelligent animals God put on Earth.

I would be happier if God had compared us to dolphins. They are intelligent animals. I once met someone who trained dolphins, and I asked him, “Are dolphins really as intelligent as it seems?”

He said, “In some ways, yes, and in some ways, no. They are very intelligent in many ways, because you can put a symbol on a sign, and a dolphin can read that symbol and understand what it means.” That is amazing to me.

But God didn’t compare us to dolphins; He compared us to sheep. Sheep are easily spooked. They are vulnerable. They have no defense mechanisms to speak of. They can’t run very fast. They are in constant need of care and attention. They have this horrible tendency to follow each other, even it means their own death. It has been documented that one sheep will walk off of a cliff, and the others will just follow.

The Bible says, “All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own” (Isaiah 53:6). Think about how many people have bought into the same lies, generation after generation. People fall into the same junk, the same addiction, and the same traps again and again. Maybe Satan figures, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Just keep reeling them in.”

We are like sheep. That’s a fact. The question is will you be a smart sheep or a dumb one? I want to stay close to the Shepherd. That’s where we all need to be.