August is here! Some of us will be heading back to school or as Gabster my youngest granddaughter would say, “Back to prison” (her word for school.) I know we can all relate to the way she feels, but sometimes, not all the time, but sometimes we need the very thing we do not like. To that truth, I am confessing and want everyone to know that I “hate” ice cream.
I did though love my time with Maria in Scotland. We ministered throughout the north and central areas and we had time to do some sightseeing. It is true what we had heard about the land. Many people who had been there said it was truly a beautiful place to visit. As we went up and down the coast of Scotland, the views were breath taking. One thing that I kept seeing was sheep. There are more sheep in Scotland than in Little Bo Peep’s flock. With every turn of the car, I would look on fields that had maybe a few cattle grazing, and maybe a few pigs, but almost all the fields we drove by had hundreds and hundreds of sheep. I found myself doing two things. First, I would begin to try to count them; I guess that is the pastor in me. Second, as I would look out the window, amazed at all those sheep, I would look for that one. You know the one I am talking about, that one that sticks out from all the others. We call that one “the black sheep”. I was looking for my people. I have always related to the outcast of a group. It seems that in my life I have found myself on the outside looking in, wanting to fit in but never knowing how. You remember in school looking for the table where someone would move a chair back for you and invite you to sit and eat lunch with them? Some of us never had that chair pulled back for us. We ended up in the corner of the cafeteria eating lunch by ourselves. That is the way it was and we learned just to accept it. But then someone shares with us how that the creator of this world not only extends his hand and welcomes all to His table but sent His only Son to die to make a chair available for us! God offers to whosoever will a seat at His table! No longer to be the “black sheep” but His sheep. How about you. Have you received Jesus into your heart? If you have, then you too are no longer an outcast but now you sit at the “cool kids table”. As we drove by our last field with sheep headed back to the airport to come home, I bowed my head and gave thanks for His love and acceptance toward this once “black sheep”.
Following my shepherd, Pastor Rick