A Shepherds Life, volume 3
A good shepherd satisfies with his goodness
As shepherds, Lorraine and I love to lavish all good things on our flocks of goats and sheep.
We love to give them lots of hugs and back and neck scratches.
We love to provide them with the best quality hay and good green pastures for them to eat.
We love to spoil them with goodness by giving them treats whenever we can (especially milkweed, sunflowers, and all of the most bizarre weeds that no other animals would eat - the goats think almost any weeds we can find around the farm are the most amazing treats).
Our goats also love bananas! Yep...bananas.
Every so often we delight in giving them a special treat of bananas and enjoy watching the absolute joy the goats have in eating their banana treats.
We are good shepherds, who love our sheep and goats and we want the best for them.
It brings us joy to lavish goodness and blessings on our animals.
We delight in them just because they are ours and we love caring for them.
However, we do have a few goats and sheep that are more on the shy side and are therefore a bit less trusting of us than the others.
That is ok, that is their personality and we understand that it takes some longer to learn to trust in us as their shepherd and to realize that we are safe and good and that all that we do is for their good and their benefit.
When we bless our goats and sheep with special treats and back scratches we offer those blessings to all (even the shy ones like Pua).
Sadly, the shy ones often miss out on the fullness of our blessings as they do not want to eat the treats from our hands and they miss out on the amazing feeling of our neck and back scratches.
Note: We assume that our back and neck scratches are amazing because most of our goats just "soak it up".
You can even see their eyes just roll back when we find the right spots!
So, some goats and sheep experience our goodness and love to the fullest and the more shy and untrusting ones still experience all of our love and goodness but differently.
All of this sounds similar to how the Bible describes the LORD as our Shepherd.
All through the Scriptures God delights in caring for his people with his goodness, blessings and love.
God is described as a shepherd who gathers his sheep and satisfies them with his goodness.
The LORD made us all and we are His and we are all fully dependent on Him for all things and he delights in us.
Wow!
That just blows my mind but it also is so incredibly awesome that God delights in me and loves me and is for me.
God works all things for my good.
I desire to be the kind of sheep in God's fold who runs to him and is satisfied by his goodness!!!!
With the LORD as my Shepherd, I truly lack nothing.
- Jeffrey
Psalm 36:7-9 (ESV)
How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light.