There’s a field on the other side of the chain link fence that’s right outside the room my team and I share. Half of the field is banana trees, the other half is just bush and tall grass. We pass by it all the time going to and from the room. About 3 weeks ago, this random goat shows up and is just living in the field, along with the chickens that have always been there. Eventually, we realize that the goat is very pregnant.
One morning we start making jokes about how we’re probably going to be woken up in the middle of the night when the goat finally gives birth. Later that night, I’m walking back to the room as the sun is almost done setting and I can hear the mama goat. I start listening to see if she’s finally having her babies, and soon enough I hear another goat that I know is not the mama. So naturally, I throw on my boots and head over there.
When I get there, there’s one baby goat already standing up and trying to figure out how to work its legs. There were two more on the ground, one in front of the mom and one behind, but they looked so sickly that I was certain they wouldn’t make it. Then the mama starts licking all the goo off of the one in front of her and in about ten minutes, there’s a perfectly healthy baby goat. But as this process was happening, I started worrying that the mama wouldn’t be able to reach the one behind her since she was tied to a tree, so I decided to put myself on standby just in case.
By the time she got around to the third baby, her head was at the end of her rope and her backside was as far away as it could be from where she was tied. Mama looked like she was still pushing and I was worried that if she had another one, she wouldn’t be able to reach it. So I decided to try and get her move closer to where she was tethered.
I started tugging on the rope and she moves with it at first. But then she realized that I was pulling on it and she immediately dug her hooves in and pulled her head back. Mama decided she wasn’t going anywhere and that was that. I started getting frustrated because I was just trying to help her and her baby and she was making it so difficult. When I made it back to the squad, I cracked a joke about finally understanding what the Bible means about separating the sheep from the goats in Matthew 25.
But as I was thinking on it later, I couldn’t help but wonder how often we do that same thing to the Lord. Just dig our heels in and be stubborn, when all He wants is what’s best for us. How often are we fighting the plan God has for us, convinced that we know what’s best? In what parts of our lives are we being goats when we’re called to be sheep that follow our Shepherd, our Good Shepherd, wherever He leads?
