IDENTITY CRISIS

We were driving to Soignies, a small town just outside of Mons, one Saturday to use the Internet connection at McDonald's when we passed a field with a herd of white sheep and a small shaggy black pony.The pony and the sheep were about the same size. When we first looked, the pony seemed more like a shaggy sheepdog. We wondered if the pony had an identity crisis – did he think he was a pony or a sheep or maybe even a sheepdog, watching out over his flock.

There must be an object lesson in this scene somewhere. Maybe, we are all like that pony, living in the world. We can choose mindlessly to follow the flock and be just like all the other sheep or we can keep ourselves apart from them. After all we are equine, not sheep. Then there is the third option. We can live in the world among the sheep, but do all that we can, as the Savior said, to “Feed my sheep.” We can be like a sheepdog and, not only protect the sheep, but guide them toward the true Shepherd.

Just a thought on a Saturday afternoon.