During one period of my life I was fortunate to live in Oklahoma. Unlike my upbringing in California, while in Oklahoma, I was exposed to people who had lived on farms. One of the funniest things I ever heard was a guy in church talking about sheep. He was beside himself with how stupid they are. They are always getting themselves into trouble, and they are always dying because of the dumbest things. For example, if the ground is uneven, they will invariably fall over and die, legs up. If they get fat and roll on their backs, they will die there, unable to get back up. If they get a minor scratch on one of their legs, they will give up on life and die. He went on and on.
Obviously, sheep and lambs are the cutest things in the world. Watch any video online of sheep hopping and it is delightful. It has to be incredibly frustrating to interact with creatures that are so darling and harmless, but also so prone to getting themselves into a bind and perishing.
As I read in the Psalms this weekend with my family, the scriptures spoke of the Savior as the shepherd and the sheep that represent each one of us. In the modern era, the analogy about sheep is probably understood by virtually none of us who are city slickers. Maybe if the analogies were about dropping smartphones without their protective cases or running out of power, we’d understand them better.
As I compare what it is in the scriptures to what the farmer in Oklahoma is saying, it means that Heavenly Father thinks we are the most wonderful, darling creatures in the whole universe. And that he sees us constantly getting ourselves into trouble. As I picture myself, my family, and my friends as sheep who are constantly on their backs, stuck there until someone rolls us back over, I have to admit that is pretty funny. And true.
