When your spirit is broken

If you grew up in the bustle of the metropolis, you wouldn’t have any inkling of what life is like in the countryside. I only experienced a slice of farm life through the cinema and our nursery native songs, and sometimes in our folk dances. Thanks to my balae (the mother of my daughter-in-law), Sandra Devaux, she told me the story of the bummer lamb.

Every once in a while, an ewe will give birth to a lamb and reject it. There are many reasons she might do this. If the lamb is returned to the ewe, the mother may even kick the poor animal away. Once an ewe rejects one of her lambs, she will never change her mind.

These little lambs will hang their heads so low that it looks like something is wrong with its neck. Their spirit is broken.

These lambs are called “bummer lambs.” Unless the shepherd intervenes, that lamb will die, be rejected and alone. So, do you know what the shepherd does? He takes that rejected little one into his home, hand-feeds it and keeps it warm by the fire. He will wrap it up with blankets and hold it to his chest so the bummer can hear his heartbeat. Once the lamb is strong enough, the shepherd will place it back in the field with the rest of the flock.

But that sheep never forgets how the shepherd cared for him when his own mother rejected him. When the shepherd calls for the flock, guess who runs to him first?

That is right, the bummer sheep. He knows his voice intimately.

It is not that the bummer lamb is loved more; it just knows the one who loves it. It’s not that it is loved more; it just believes it because it has experienced that love one-on-one.

Many of us are bummer lambs, rejected and broken. But He is the Good Shepherd. He cares for our every need and holds us close to His heart so we can hear His heartbeat.

We may be broken but we are deeply loved by the Shepherd.

The Lord is my shepherd. I’m a bummer lamb.