Farm Reflections – The Good Shepherd

Kidding Season

Goat squeezes cure most anything :)

During kidding season this year we ended up with a bottle baby. I’m amazed at how much work that little one adds. It makes me quickly realize that goat mommas don’t get enough credit for everything they do to nurture their kids.

Besides providing food and warmth, goat mommas teach their young ones about electric fences and ferocious dogs. The dogs really aren’t ferocious but try and you cannot tell that to a goat momma. Any type of perceived danger and they are calling their kids to bring them close.

Their nurturing spirit is evident within minutes after the kids are born, as they immediately begin to clean them up and coax them to drink.

Encouraging the new kid to "go thru the tunnel" to find the milk source

Coaxing begins with lining up the kid between her front legs and then nudging them to go “through the tunnel” until they bump into some “thing” that they hungrily explore. Here they find an appendage or two that hints that it may be the fountain of youth.

The very best goat mommas, if they find their baby is not quickly catching on to “going thru the tunnel”, will walk over the top of them until they are lined up with the milking apparatus. All that baby needs to do is look up.

Goat mommas have a singular goal to get those babies up and nursing.

Shepherding

Jesus, as our good shepherd, nurtures us too with a singular goal. His heart is that each person is found, rescued and adopted by Him. That relationship he has with us is personal, deep, committed –“I know my sheep and my sheep know me.” John 10:14

We as Christian mommas, want the same for our children – for them to have faith, its comforts while here on earth and the promise realized of eternal life with Jesus in heaven.

But wanting it and having it can feel so far apart at times.

We lend our ears, our words and our hearts as they migrate thru life’s joys and challenges. At times, we receive back disappointments, concern, fear and inner turmoil.

At those times Jesus is still nurturing us and reminding us to look up, don’t give in, but to trust in Him. We are reminded from the parable of the lost sheep, that He seeks out our “lost” child (self, husband, friend) too and rejoices when they are found.

Luke 15:6b “Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep”

What a comfort!

Grace upon Grace,

Penny

Note: Just so you don’t think I’m that crazy goat lady where I treat my goats like my children. 😉 - Baby goats truly are called kids so when they are born it is referred to as kidding. One of my favorite things that our more vocal goats do is they sing to their babies while they are in the womb. It is quite the chorus when you go out to the barn and listen to them all hum along. The babies learn their voice early!