We are all welcomed and included

I took the opening photograph in the Republic of Ireland. The idyllic scene of sheep grazing on a hillside is visible around almost every bend of the winding roads. One does not see the hard work of tending to the animals from the car window. There is the worry over disease and the finances of a farm. I would not have the first clue about how to wrestle a sheep into position to be sheared.

A participant in one of the weekly Bible studies I taught knew this work from an early age, growing up on his family’s farm in Montana. He and his siblings worked day and night tending his parents’ farm animals. He had no idealized interpretations of stories in the Bible involving sheep and corrected us if we did. His farming experience led him to get an education as a civil engineer. Because of his early life experience, he could fix just about anything and was a valued member of our board of trustees. He set us straight about the real hard work of tending a flock.

Movie viewers get a humorous look into the behaviors of sheep in a movie where sheep are the main characters and tell the story in their own voices. “The Sheep Detectives” stars Hugh Jackman as George, the shepherd on a farm in rural England. The movie is based on the book “Three Bags Full” by Leonie Swann. It doesn’t take long to realize this is more than just a sweet story for children.

George is not a typical shepherd. He loves his sheep, names them and reads mystery stories to them every night. His sheep have unique personalities. When George is mysteriously murdered, the sheep decide they will find the murderer of their beloved shepherd. This ambitious undertaking requires that the sheep take risks outside their usual patterns of behavior and go places with which they are unfamiliar. Sheep usually stick with their flock, especially in times of danger. This adventure is scary and daunting. Some of the more grown-up themes may pass over the heads of young children, but they will enjoy the animated characters. Older children and adults will quickly pick up on an abundance of more nuanced themes of bravery in the face of obstacles, handling feelings of loss and sadness, the importance of memory and handling differences. It is a film that invites families to laugh and cry together and to talk about more than just being entertained.

A character that stole my heart was the winter lamb. His only crime was being born in the winter, outside the usual spring lambing season. The winter lamb was simply born when and where he was born. For this difference, the rest of the flock dismiss this little one as bad luck and not to be trusted or welcomed into the fold. The flock does not question this stereotypical belief. Sheep don’t function alone. This ostracism is a death sentence. The shepherd picks up the outcast lamb and feeds him. The other sheep resent the attention he gets. The winter lamb is resourceful in his own way and proves to be useful. But why? Why does he have to work so hard to gain a place in the larger family that other sheep take for granted as their right?

In the parable of the Good Shepherd, Jesus leaves the flock to search for the one who is lost. The shepherd knows this is a life-or-death search. The message is that all are welcomed and included. The prejudices and limitations the group sets are not the same as the shepherd’s.

If we are honest, we all have had times when we have felt like a winter lamb, alone, outcast and unacceptable for nothing that was our fault or within our control. Maybe your survival was not on the line, but it can certainly feel that way. Or maybe it was.

When we take a wider view and learn from the shepherd’s example, we see that the flock is much bigger and more encompassing than we believed. There is a love that is greater and more expansive than we imagined, that includes even us. When it comes to belonging, we are not the ones who get to have a list of criteria for acceptance. We can retire our clipboards and our checklists and our cold stares. A bigger flock is more fun anyway.

Don’t let anyone “pull the wool over your eyes.” Sheep can solve mysteries when they are brave and work together, and the flock is better when everyone is included in it.