Scattering The Flock

I’ve never had sheep but I have had chickens. When we first got chickens I thought my fence was good enough… it wasn’t. Some coyotes got in and slaughtered all our chickens. It was a crime scene. So I did a lot of work and built a much better fence. Of course the fence stopped the dogs and coyotes but could not stop the Bobcats and Hawks.

We had not had a problem for about 20 years and then two dogs found an imperfection in my fence the other day. They squeezed through and started slaughtering our chickens. They killed 7 of them. They wouldn’t leave when I waved my arms and hollered at them but they did leave when I started shooting at them.

Dogs are different than coyotes… they kill for fun not for food. I’m sure if I was a dog that chasing and killing chickens would be a lot funner than chasing a thrown ball in the back yard for instance.

That night we could only find three live chickens in our pen. I figured that some must be in hiding. One of the first chickens killed was a crippled (from birth) rooster named Willie. He was born to be a victim because he couldn’t run. Our other rooster was Woody a large and beautiful bird and I suppose he was my favorite and he was among the missing. Woody and Willie.

It was so traumatizing to Julie and I that we decided we wanted to get out of the chicken business.

We knew that we wouldn’t get an accurate count of the survivors until the next evening when they came in to roost. That next evening 13 of them came back including Woody the rooster. But they were terrified and wouldn’t leave the roost for two days. Over the next three days three of the wounded hens died.

What to do… what to do… Of course I could protect our chickens if I locked them up all the time but that wouldn’t be much of a life for them it would be like being in prison. The chickens like to free range during the day and they make more nutritious eggs scratching for insects and eating vegetation.

In the end we decided to continue with our chickens. I apologized to them for not making them safer.

The church and its leaders have been compared to a flock of sheep with shepherds. The shepherds have been warned about wolves slaughtering and scattering the flock and to be careful and be watchful.

Shepherds can be so careful with the flock that the flock are like chickens… confined to a jail cell instead of being able to be free and productive in society. Shepherds can also be so lackadaisical that they allow any and every improvisation into the assembly that poisons the flock from within and slowly strangles it.

Shepherds have a responsibility to have a healthy productive flock and not be so restrictive that the flock withers on the vine… so to speak. That’s requires great judgment and great patience and great confidence in the Lord God almighty.

In our flock of chickens the ones we lost were the oldest and the crippled (Willie). Let’s do our best as shepherds to make all of our members so spiritually strong that they are immune to the attack of Satan. Of course that’s impossible because churches are dynamic. Always taking in the weak and building them up.

I like to think that Woody the rooster fought for his hens. I did think he was dead because we found a lot of his tail feathers but he survived to fight again. Fight as he might have he was no match for a German Shepherd… but I was and Shepherds are more than a match for German Shepherds.

Saying Goodbye

As a Veterinarian I am tasked with euthanizing the beloved pets of our clients. I do it several times a day. At first I would be affected by the emotions of my clients but then as time went by I became more immune to it. I have witnessed the silent sorrow of some and on the other end have seen the bitter wails and crying of others. I’ve seen it all.

The other day I had a pet presented for euthanasia and I started crying and had to leave the room… unusual for me. An old lady came in with a 16 year old poodle which had lived far beyond its life expectancy and had all the symptoms of advanced age… blindness, deafness, arthritis and dementia. The woman loved “Coco” and was reluctant to put her “to sleep”. She explained that she and her husband had moved into assisted care living and that her husband had told her to put Coco to sleep… and she couldn’t she just couldn’t do it.

Now her husband had developed kidney failure and she was over whelmed with caring for him and exhausted and didn’t have enough time to care for Coco. She had thought of placing Coco with someone else but she wasn’t sure of the care Coco might get from someone who had not loved Coco like she had.

I told her that I understood. That my dad had developed cancer and my own mother was overwhelmed with his care and then I started crying and had to leave the room. I came back later when I had composed myself and helped Coco pass on. The old lady hugged me and thanked me.

I think my employees think I don’t care when I put a pet to sleep because I am emotionally solid because euthanasia is something I do every day. But every once in a while I surprise them and myself when some unexpected connection is made that they can’t see and I didn’t anticipate.

I understood that woman because she looked like my mother to me and my mother’s emotions were my own emotions. I feel them exquisitely.

My guess is that our Lord God almighty feels our emotions just like we feel them. And that when we feel pain it’s like he feels it… as if it were his own pain. Imagine that kind of love.

Oh to be like him and I hope and pray that I can be.