Real Love
I look down at my heart adorned gumboots and smile. I usually wear them in the summer because they are lightweight, but so far winter in Ohio has been mild and uneventful so I opted to wear my gumboots today instead of my cumbersome heavy winter boots.
Hearts. The universal symbol for love. It’s also a symbol this morning and every other morning and evening as I do chores of the love I have for my sheep and other rescues. I love them even though I’m not sure they love me in return. It’s just as simple as that.
Simple. Really? Carrying hay, wading through mud and manure, filling water tanks, suiting up to brave the more than harsh winter weather — sitting for hours on the barn floor with a sick or dying sheep. Simple? Not really. But what loving relationship really is always simple? Truth be told, no relationship truly is. Simple, that is.
Love (at least for me) also means commitment and sacrifice. I can’t have real love without the commitment to stay in a relationship especially during the hard times. I can’t have real love without sacrificing and putting the needs of others above my own when it’s necessary. Especially in the winters of life. Whether it be with sheep or people.
It’s not unusual for someone to tell me how much they love sheep; how lucky I am to have sheep or how idyllic my life as a Shepherdess must be. They see sheep as fluffy cute animals. Armchair shepherding is idyllic when done in front of a cozy fireplace with no farm chores to do.
But the reality is that it’s hard work. They don’t see the sacrifice this Shepherdess makes to tend her flock properly. They don’t see the mud laden with manure or other “cute” things that go along with being a Shepherdess. They don’t truly understand if you don’t love your sheep and are not deeply committed to them — most often putting them first — it makes even everyday chores more difficult.
Believe me, I am not writing this for accolades or sympathy. I am here because I want to be. I am here because it’s one of my callings, just as we all have callings. And I have come to understand no calling is more noble than others if we’re following our Good Shepherd’s calling. Neither are any of our callings always truly idyllic. All inevitably include harsh winters.
That’s why love is so important. That’s why commitment and sacrifice are too. If they aren’t there the relationship blows away with the first frigid blast of winter or withers in summer’s sweltering heat. Real love never dies. Real love never truly leaves.
The best example of that is our Good Shepherd, the author and creator of real love. If leaving Heaven to live with and become one of us — to be cruelly sacrificed for our sins — to take our place on the cross doesn’t say love and commitment and sacrifice to us, His sheep, what else does? If the Good Shepherd becoming the sacrificial lamb for every person in the world — whether they love Him in return — doesn’t speak of His great love, what else could?
I look down again at my heart adorned gumboots, smile and say, “Thank You, my Good Shepherd for loving me even before I loved You. Your love for me never dies. You will never leave me. I believe these and all Your promises. Because, above all else, I believe in You.”
Jackie Deems copyright 2024
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
19 We love because he first loved us. I John 4:7–11 & 19
Trying to sleep seemed like a never-ending nightmare last night because of extremely high winds and sleet/hail pelleting the windows. I prayed without ceasing, alternating prayers asking that our power wouldn’t go out then thanking my Good Shepherd it didn’t. Our power has a tendency to go out when there are high winds especially when there’s also ice coating branches weighing them down.
My prayers extended to my sheep and other rescues that they would settle in and settle down since they have a heightened awareness and skittishness when there are storms. I prayed that a tree or large limb wouldn’t fall on the buildings or fences. I prayed our water pipes wouldn’t freeze and burst. I prayed for everything and everybody out in the weather. I prayed.
Honestly, I pray a lot anyways — oftentimes out loud when I’m alone. But I tend to only pray without ceasing when there’s something happening that is more than the usual everyday fare for me.
I often even pray during the night when there’s urgent prayer needed like when my dear friend Pat was battling a deadly disease. It seemed like my Good Shepherd woke me continually to pray for her and her family and I told her I was praying her through the night. I didn’t mind. It was an honor.
I guess that’s the point. It is an honor to pray. It’s beyond my comprehension that the very God Who created the earth and all the things in it would think my prayers were worthy of His time or attention. Yet, He created this love language between us.
I grew up thinking prayer was only a formal affair, hands folded, eyes closed, head bowed. But as I got older, I realized my prayers were coveted by my Good Shepherd and He delights in any time I turn my thoughts and prayers towards Him. Just as those who love us most seek our conversation, affection and attention, so does He.
It’s an honor to pray? It is to me, and I remind myself of that often. Because what if the Good Shepherd was not good? What if He could care less about communing with me? What if He created me then sent me on my way without even glancing back? What if He didn’t care about me in the least?
I can’t imagine how different my life would be if my Good Shepherd wasn’t good. I would be like any sheep without their Shepherd — alone with no protection or love or hope or care. I would be lost. Truly and profoundly down to the depths of my soul, lost.
The very thought of that takes my breath away. The very thought of that makes me internalize what could be but isn’t. The very thought of that causes me to want to pray without ceasing in thanksgiving to my Good Shepherd.
MY. GOOD. SHEPHERD. Jesus Christ. The Lamb of God. And so much more than I can or will ever understand.
Jackie Deems copyright 2024
He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young. Isaiah 40:11
