Ideas

Sheepish

Columnist

Feeling autonomous and proud? Then ponder the lives of sheep

My wife and I stayed once in a bed-and-breakfast in rural Tasmania, the rugged island off the southern coast of Australia. A sheep rancher had built a guest cottage in the middle of his fields, and for an extra fee, lodgers could take a meal in the ranch house. Knowing we would probably never eat fresher lamb, we signed on.

Over dinner I asked innocently about the odd coloringโ€”orange, red, blue, and green swatchesโ€”we had seen on the rumps of his sheep. “Ah, that’s how we tell when the ewes mated,” he explained with a laugh. “I hang a container of colored chalk in a rather strategic place on my rams. He leaves his mark when he does his duty, and that way I know that all the ewes with orange rumps were serviced on the 21st. When the due date rolls aroundโ€”sheep deliver right on time and they’re 100 percent fertileโ€”I can herd the orange ewes into the barn and give them special care.”

In the next few minutes I learned much more about the reproductive habits of sheep. Each ewe has only a six-hour window of receptivity to mating. This poses no problem to the ram, who has an infallible sense of which ewe might welcome him at any given moment. The rancher relied on 10 rams to service 4,000 female sheep, which meant that the rams worked themselves to exhaustion over several weeks, losing much of their body weight in the process. All work, no romance.

When I saw a scrawny, bedraggled ramโ€”his chores done, his strength dissipated, good for nothing but the slaughterhouse, and even then unfit for human consumptionโ€”I breathed a prayer of thanks to God for adjusting the terms of sexuality in the human species. (Zoologists note that very few speciesโ€”dolphins, some primates, and the large catsโ€”engage in sex as a form of pleasure.)

The next morning I went jogging through the fields, taking care where I stepped. I tried to imagine life from the sheep’s point of view. Ninety percent of waking hours they spend wandering around, heads down, looking for lush green grass. Occasionally a dog barks and nips at their heels, and to humor him and shut him up they move in the direction he wants them to. Lo, better grass often awaits them there. As weather changes, they learn to huddle together in rain and wind.

Once a year, a rambunctious cousin appears among them and dashes from sheep to sheep, leaving the ewes marked with strange colors on their rumps. Bellies swell, lambs emerge, and attention turns to weaning these small, frisky creatures and watching them gambol through the grass. Brothers and sisters may disappear, sometimes attacked by a Tasmanian devil (these nasty animals, carnivorous marsupials, really do exist!) and sometimes ushered away by the two-legged one. The same creature periodically drives them into a barn where he shaves off their coats, leaving them cold and embarrassed (sheepish) for a time.

As I jogged, it occurred to me that sheep, to the degree they think at all, may well presume they order their own destiny. They chew cud, roam the fields, make choices, and live out their lives with only a few rude interruptions from dogs, devils, rams, and humans. Little do they know that the entire scenario, from birth to death and every stage in between, is being orchestrated according to a rational plan by the humans who live in the ranch house.

C. S. Lewis conjectured, “There may be Natures piled upon Natures, each supernatural to the one beneath it.” The sheep analogy is inexact, of course: Not even the dumbest sheep would deny the existence of another world out thereโ€”marsupials, humans, dogsโ€”that impinges on its own. We humans, especially those who live in reductionistic modern times, have simply decided that nothing exists beyond the range of our sense organs. Some are convinced that what we cannot see must not exist.

Do we stand in relation to God as sheep stand in relation to us? In some ways, no: God grants the ability for knowledge “from below,” and allows intimate exchange with himself. In some ways, yes: “Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture,” wrote the psalmist. Note the possessives: his people, his pasture. We live our days in a world that, in its essence, its origin, and its destiny, belongs to God, with ourselves as God’s own possessions. We may insist on our own autonomyโ€””All we like sheep have gone astray”โ€”but in the end it is no more impressive, or effective, than the autonomy of a Tasmanian ewe.

Copyright © 2002 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Related Elsewhere

A ready-to-download Bible Study on this article is available at ChristianBibleStudies.com. These unique Bible studies use articles from current issues of Christianity Today to prompt thought-provoking discussions in adult Sunday school classes or small groups.

Previous Yancey columns for Christianity Today include:

Servant in ChiefJimmy Carter’s journey from the White House to building houses.(May 28, 2002)

Why Do They Hate Us?How to turn the Baywatch syndrome into the Jesus syndrome. (March 27, 2002)

Honest Church MarketingWe enhance our ‘image’ by offering the world a realistic picture of faith. (October 24, 2001)

Compassion ConfusionWe should serve the needy even when it has bad political consequences. (August 28, 2001)

Fixing Our Weakest LinkEvangelicals should be more “needful of the minds of others.” (July 13, 2001)

Replenishing the Inner PastorChurches should take greater interest in their shepherds’ spiritual health. (May 14, 2001)

Beyond Flesh and BloodI used to disdain biblical talk of “invisible spirits.” No more. (Mar. 27, 2001)

God at LargeA look around the globe reveals a God as big as we want him to be. (Jan. 31, 2001)

Humility’s Many FacesEveryone I’ve looked up to has shared one trait. (Dec. 4, 2000)

Getting a LifeThe most fully alive persons are those who give their lives away. (Oct. 16, 2000)

Yancey’s Where is God When it Hurts, Special Edition and Soul Survivor: How My Faith Survived the Church are available on Christianbook.com.

Also in this issue

Double Jeopardy: An interview with former Taliban hostages Heather Mercer & Dayna Curry

Cover Story

Double Jeopardy

"Watchtower Ousts Victims, Whistle-Blowers"

Prison Rape Is No Joke

Give Us Liberty

Probable First Cause

The Long View: Why I Don't Imitate Christ

How to Deal with Criminals

Remedial History

Preaching

Banning Banns

Christian College Denied Accreditation

Two Hostages Die In Attempted Missionary Rescue In Mindanao

Martin Burnham: Willing to Go

Ediborah Yap: The Almost-Forgotten Hero

"Stretch Pants, Beer, and Other Controversies"

From Afghanistan Aid Workers to Hostages of the Taliban

Gay Parenting On Trial

Bills Would Unmuzzle Churches in Politics

Assualt on Purity: ACLU Claims Abstinence Program has a Christian agenda.

Light Sabers and Self-Sacrifice

The Uncommon Benefits of Common Grace

How to Confront a Theocracy

Patrons of the Evangelical Mind

Why God Enjoys Baseball

Prophetic Habits of a Sociologist's Heart

Contraception

News

Go Figure

Assualt on Purity: How Effective Are Abstinence Programs?

Power Shift: Canadian Alliance replaces lightning rod Stockwell Day.

Cuba No Es Libre

Jesus for President

Quotation Marks

Is Male-Only Ordination Illegal?

Buffy's Religion

Seat Belt Salvation

View issue

Our Latest

News

Died: Jack Iker, Anglican Who Drew the Line at Womenโ€™s Ordination

The Texas bishop fought a bitter legal battle with the Episcopal Church and won.

Why Canโ€™t We Talk to Each Other Anymore?

Online interactions are draining us of energy to have hard conversations in person.

Church Disappointment Is Multilayered

Jude 3 Project founder Lisa Fields speaks about navigating frustrations with God and fellow believers.

The Robot Will Lie Down With the Gosling

In โ€œThe Wild Robot,โ€ hospitality reprograms relationships.

How Priscilla Shirer Surrenders All

The best-selling Bible teacher writes about putting God first in her life and how healthy Christian discipleship requires sacrifice

The Bulletin

Second Hand News

The Bulletin talks presidential podcasts, hurricane rumors, and the spiritual histories of Israel and Iran.

Which Church in Revelation Is Yours Like?

From the lukewarm Laodicea to the overachieving Ephesus, these seven ancient congregations struggled with relatable problems.

Apple PodcastsDown ArrowDown ArrowDown Arrowarrow_left_altLeft ArrowLeft ArrowRight ArrowRight ArrowRight Arrowarrow_up_altUp ArrowUp ArrowAvailable at Amazoncaret-downCloseCloseEmailEmailExpandExpandExternalExternalFacebookfacebook-squareGiftGiftGooglegoogleGoogle KeephamburgerInstagraminstagram-squareLinkLinklinkedin-squareListenListenListenChristianity TodayCT Creative Studio Logologo_orgMegaphoneMenuMenupausePinterestPlayPlayPocketPodcastRSSRSSSaveSaveSaveSearchSearchsearchSpotifyStitcherTelegramTable of ContentsTable of Contentstwitter-squareWhatsAppXYouTubeYouTube