A Baby Lamb and Its Mama in Distress

It’s midnight here and I just had a thought-provoking experience. After driving back late from my mural work on a stretch of country roads where I was literally the only car for a good 15 minutes or so, I needed to tend to my sheep.

After cleaning up inside some, I went out back and planned to go down and give them their daily treats and check on them. My phone was dead and I had no flashlight but I could see dimly to walk down.

I kept hearing the sound of one of the baby lambs in the distance making an “unfamiliar” calling sound. Usually, they sound like newborn babies…their tender calling. And the two mamas have a typical vocalizing sound that just means they hear me and want me to come give them something.

As I walked down in the moonlight, I saw one of the ewes standing back further with her baby, and I could still hear the sound of the other baby lamb coming from somewhere and it sounded distressed.

The other mama ewe was coming toward me, alone, and was also making a repetitive vocalization sound that sounded insistent and distressed. I realized the direction of the sound of the other little lamb, just a little further down.

He was caught in between the vertical wood slats of the boxes that surround my peach trees. The gap is about 7 inches or so, and about 3/4 of his body had made it back out (he obviously got himself inside the enclosure) and his back quarters were tightly stuck.

I tried for a few minutes to dislodge him, and he was not too happy and I could tell he was frightened. I kept trying to turn his hips or lift up his back end, hoping that he only needed a little help/rotation just enough for him to get free. It wasn’t working.

Then I realized I should go find my cordless driver and remove the two screws holding the slat. I went back up in the dark and found a lantern and the driver, and came back down and unscrewed the wood.

Boy, did he immediately bolt away toward his mama once he was free! I watched him run right to her and voraciously attack her nipples to nurse. He lunged at her repeatedly, seemingly starving for some milk. I don’t know how long he had been caught, since I was gone over 7 hours tonight. I had the feeling he might have been there for a bit, and that makes me sad.

What if that had happened when I was out of town the past several days? It would have been difficult for my neighbor to have dealt with or even discovered. They are fairly self-sufficient but I do check on them when I’m here. Still, no matter how much we try to create areas that are safe and protected, there is always the unexpected.

That little lamb kept close to its mama and kept wanting to nurse on her, I stood there watching for a bit, and then gave them all their molasses grain treats.

It made me think about some scriptures, and also about the different sounds of cries and calls that both sheep and human beings have. The sound of human weeping is very distinct.

It made me think of the scripture:

Jeremiah 31:15-17

“Thus says the Lord: A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more”.

Even mama sheep watch out for their young and become distressed when they are unsafe. I almost felt the mama knew I could help…when I walked back up to get the cordless driver she followed me, continuing to vocalize. She didn’t know that I would be right back to help.

I thought about how tired I was and I was so glad I pushed myself to go out there tonight even toward midnight since I hadn’t seen them all day, rather than to assume they were just fine. They don’t have to have their daily treat, but they sure do like and want it.

I thought of the verses about the Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep, and that there are wolves and hirelings that care not for the sheep.

I also thought about “He who watches over Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps” (Psalm 121:4).

But mostly, I was fixed on thoughts about the cry of this little lamb who was caught up in something he could not escape nor break free from, and the distressed and watching mama who could only look to me–a shepherdess, I suppose–to help.

These sounds tonight distinctly reminded me of “Rachel weeping for her children…” and I want those reading to clearly understand that there are so very many mamas weeping for their children who have been caught up in the transgender cult and they are refusing to be comforted.

The “wolves” want the mamas to weep and to believe that these precious little lambs, like Rachel’s children, are “no more.” That they are as good as dead.

For the love of all that is right and holy in this world, put on your listening ears for these cries…and ask what the Good Shepherd would want of you.