The Ingathering Of The Sheep

One of the most beautiful animal things in nature I have ever seen happened years ago when we were living in the center of Oregon. It's sheep country and almost everyone who lives in that area has sheep. I used to do a lot of carpentry for a huge sheep ranch (30,000 acres) and one day the manager who was a friend of mine told me to come with him to see something.

Mitchell is known for it's hills and highlands with a few canyon-like lowlands.

My friend pointed my attention to a hillside which is actually the edge of a highland. As a watched for a while the most amazing thing I have ever seen animal-wise in my life happened. The side of that very long hill suddenly was becoming covered with sheep coming over the top and down into the lowland. Over 3000 of them. All at once together decending the steep side of the canyon. It was like a wave of sheep decending until the whole side of the hill was alive and moving. I can't even begin to describe the suddeness or the beauty of it or how massive it was.

Photo from www.raisingsheep.net/

Sheep are wonderful creatures. Unless they are restrained by man-made fences, they naturally do certain things well. They know how to search out food and as a general rule will eat together. They also do not have to be encouraged to reproduce. A small flock over some years can become quite large and yet remain together. Some may wander off and get into all sorts of trouble but by nature especially when they begin to spread the alarm amongst each other over a danger they will flock together. They are natural flockers.

But I would be cheating you out of a part of the picture of those sheep I saw coming over that huge hill if I didn't tell you about the shepherds that guided and cared for them. Unlike the other sheep owners in the area, these men came from generations of sheepherders. Many of them were Basque's who were brought in. They ate together and lived together and worked amazingly well together. They knew that there was only one flock and that flock belonged to their master. I never once in over 5 months saw them quarreling over whose sheep were whose. They were men who would spare no lengths to go out and reflock those who had wandered off.

But if I might take the liberty to express. There was one sad thing about that day. Unlike the sheep over thousands of acres who gathered together, the sheep who were fenced in by their shepherd's claims were unable to attend. All they could do was stand longingly at the fences that held them from gathering with the rest of the sheep. Because men had fenced them in they were unable to join the others...

...in that Great Ingathering of the Sheep.

* In case you didn't notice, all the sheep in the picture above are looking in the same direction. The same thing is happening with the flock of God's sheep. They are all starting to long to gather together as one flock and their attention is being drawn longingly in the direction of their coming Master. If you get in the way of that or start building new fences (or refusing to tear down old ones) you may end up on the side of a hill somewhere tending goats... And that my friends is a warning of things to come... Claiming God's sheep as your own in the day that is coming is to risk the wrath of God...