Lamb Jams

Submitted by Alan Marsden on Fri, 12/04/2019 - 06:02

Sometimes city churches are affected by the traffic. I attended Orange Street Congregational Church in London this summer. One of its leaders confided that we would have a poor congregation that morning on account of road closures and the resultant clogging up of the remaining highways. We at Martin Top have few such worries, though a fallen tree has blocked the lane during my time and tractors are known to delay journey times.
 
Some Sundays ago, while standing by the front door greeting God’s folk, I saw the road was blocked by a farmer putting out his new lambs to pasture. Ewes and lambs were together, escorted up Newby Lane by hands and dogs, until they reached the field to which they had been assigned. Those lambs had not been away from the farm before; how strange the lane must have appeared, and how pleasant the field when they finally got there. Little wonder they leapt about for joy. It would be a shame to spoil this Arcadian idyl by reminding us of those lambs’ ultimate destination. Yet we Christians can look forward to a new home, away from the farmyard of this life, away from the strange paths over which we are marched. One day, the Good Shepherd will release us into somewhere better, and unlike those lambs, we shall be with our Jesus forever:
 
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures