Transcript
The beautiful green hills of New Zealand, a country known for its sheep industry. Are dotted everywhere with white sheep. During the yearly lambing season, thousands of baby lambs are born, and unfortunately some lambs die at birth. Many mother sheep are also lost during the lambing season and they die giving birth. In an attempt to save the orphaned lambs, the shepherd matched baby lambs who have lost their mothers with mother’s sheep who have lost their lambs. It’s not as easy as it sounds, though. A mother’s sheep won’t accept a lamb and nurse it unless it is her own. So how then do the shepherds get a mother’s sheep to accept an orphaned lamb as her own? The process is as old as shepherding itself. The mother’s own lamb, which has died, is skinned, and the skin of the dead lamb is draped over the living lamb as it is placed by the adopted mother’s side. The mother sheep then smells the skin and accepts the orphaned lamb as her own. So, lambing season in New Zealand reminds us of what Jesus did for us on the cross. When John wrote in revelation about our world being saved by the blood of the lamb, it was in terms that people in an agrarian society would vividly understand. And Paul wrote to the Ephesians, but now in Christ, Jesus, you who were once far away have been brought near through the blood of Jesus Christ. For he has destroyed the barrier dividing the wall of hostility in Ephesians 2. Because of Christ’s blood, God accepts us as his own. Once we were orphans. But now we are God’s adopted children. God bless you today, Captain Ken Chapman.
