Climbing The Same Mountain
The main sheep barn is also on one of the steepest hills on the farm. At times it almost seems like a very tall mountain. Because of my asthma, I can get winded just climbing up that hill especially in the winter when I breathe in frigid air. But there’s also so much beauty up at the top of that hill, the climb is always worth it.
I have found myself getting discouraged as I climb sometimes. It’s slippery and steep and hard to navigate with a bucket in my hand. I breathe a prayer, “Lord help me”, my words freeze in the arctic air so I can almost visually see them going up to Heaven.
Sometimes that help comes in the form of a sheep baa and an upturned woolly face greeting me hoping for extra grain or hay. Other times a Livestock Guard Dog walks beside or in front of me, nuzzling my hand, urging me on. A red Cardinal perched on beautiful pine boughs blanketed in white beckons me forward. A deer stands frozen still, watching to see if I detect it — our eyes meeting briefly before it disappears into the woods.
It’s not unusual for me to also see a sheep encouraging another to come home as one calls back to a faraway baa from their pasture mate further down the pasture. A Livestock Guard Dog walks beside a slower sheep, the dog stopping when the sheep does, starting up the hill again only after the sheep has rested — reaching the barn, safely home together.
I know my Good Shepherd is always watching me, urging me on. But sometimes it’s easier for me to see and feel encouragement from the animals because they are literally right in front of me. He knows what touches my heart, what encourages me, that I can see His hand in things others may not notice — if only I stop long enough to see them. It’s how my Good Shepherd created me to be, and He uses those things I tend to follow to lead me up the mountain.
We all have times of discouragement and difficult times that we don’t think we can or will survive. We all have times we feel alone, deep down alone. We look to the Good Shepherd and sometimes we don’t hear or feel Him because in that moment we are deeply focused elsewhere. So, He sends encouragement if we only stop long enough to see it; a visit with a friend, a card, phone call, text, another climber on our same path — whatever it is He knows will encourage us and keep us moving onward.
Many of us are all climbing the same mountain together — at different levels on different paths — but we’re meant to help each other climb. Sometimes we help encourage another to continue forward, other times we stop and rest alongside a weary traveler who feels they can’t go on.
But we keep climbing, ever forward, because we know it’s the only way to get to where He longs for us to ultimately be — safely home — together in Heaven with Him.
Jackie Deems copyright 2023
