Sheep are mentioned throughout the bible as perhaps the most popular livestock of the day, and the art of shepherding is used many times in scriptures as examples of God's relationship to us, a father to his household, a pastor to a church, etc etc. The art of shepherding is historically seen as the art of leading effectively. And sheep are seen as analogous to humans, our nature being much the same.
So today, sunday morning, we decided to head out into the bright beautiful sunshine and try our hand at shepherding both sheep and children. We gathered some chairs, hot tea, trail mix, bibles, and off we went into an unfenced pasture next door (with permission of course). After setting up a cozy family spot, we opened the gate and let the sheep in (or is it out?)
At first it was a bit of a rodeo.. sheep everywhere, frantically running hither and tither in their new found freedom and open grass. But after a few moments of herding, chasing, etc... they calmed down and the children got a handle on shepherding. As you can see in the pictures below, they each got a turn with the shepherd staff, watching the flock.
In the 3 hour experience we found a couple hours to read some scriptures, and talk about the children's recent venture into handing out bible / gospel tracts as a part of their personal experience. The morning was an unbelievably humbling and touching experience, teaching, learning, sharing, doing. All in the beautiful sunday morning sunshine.
We will definitely do this again, Sso if you drop by on a Sunday morning, feel free to grab a chair and join our new little family bible study... in the pasture under the sun. Just be prepared to practice shepherding as we share together!
 |
| Its small, but Kaelyn is in the middle with the staff keeping watch over the flock |
 |
| Our little family gathering |
 |
| Hunter takes his turn at being a shephard |
No comments:
Post a Comment