He arrived unexpected, one summer day on the Rocky Mountain ranch.
The owner was watching her herd of Highland cattle, grazing contently in the pasture, when a commotion caught her attention: two cream colored calves were butting heads. This wasn’t uncommon, but what happened next was a surprise. A couple of mama cows charged in and shooed one of the calves away.
A look through her binoculars solved the mystery. The second calf wasn’t a calf at all. It was a sheep! “He must have been dropped here, or fallen off a trailer in transport,” said the rancher’s husband. The husband-and-wife team road out on an ATV to wrangle the flockless lamb, but he ran from them–quicker than greased lightning!
That evening, the lonely lamb laid down in the tall grass, a stone’s throw from the Highland herd. A solitary sheep is a sad sight. And the little guy was also in great danger. There were plenty of coyotes, at least one hungry cougar, and even a rogue bear in the area, who would have gladly eaten him for supper.
Finally, one of the heifers, who would calve the following spring, could take it no longer. She slowly walked toward the sheep, holding her head high–to show she meant him no harm.
“You are far from your flock, little lamb. What’s your name?” The young sheep shivered in the brisk mountain air. “My name is Henry. I fell off of a trailer and onto the road. I’m lost, and I don’t know how to find my family again.”
“Don’t worry, small one,” she said in a soon-to-be-a-mother way. “Come lie down next to me, with the others, and get warm. I’ll give you a proper introduction in the morning.”
As the sun rose behind the mountains, Annabelle, the helpful heifer nudged little Henry the sheep awake.
“Alright, wee lad, I have a plan. You are small and shaggy, like a Highland calf. So I will act like I’m your mama, and you will pretend to be my baby. When I stand up, you get up too, and act like you’re nursing from my udders.”
Henry saw young calves stretching their necks under their mother’s bellies–for a drink, and did the same. “Now, no nibbling, little lamb!” Annabelle mooed. “There’s not any milk down there yet.”
There really isn’t that much difference between a herd of cows and a flock of sheep. Both animals do many of the same things. Annabelle knew this. “Just stay with me, little guy. Move when I do, lie down when I do, and graze when I do.”
It worked! Within a week the other cows accepted the lamb as one of their own. Everyone knew Henry wasn’t really a Highland calf, but one member of the herd had accepted an outsider, so the rest followed her example.
The young ram survived the Colorado winter, moving with his adopted family from pasture to pasture. And the following spring, he romped and played with Annabelle’s real calf–butting heads with her in the lush green meadow.
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.
Galatians 3:28-29 (ESV)
Kind reader, everyone matters if anyone matters at all! Thank you for reading. 🙏❤️ Prayers and love.
This fictional story was inspired by actual events, chronicled by my blogger friend, Sister Super-C at God Still Speaks. Read her original post here: I Speak Sheep.
The Stigma Stops Here.🛑
#mentalhealthmatters
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