"Following after"

Thursday 18th April 2013

Ewes and lambs at Greenhaugh

To prepare the children at Greenhaugh First School for the idea of Jesus as the "Good Shepherd", I asked them which of them had sheep at home.  "So," I said to a six-year-old, "when your dad calls the sheep, what happens?"  I couldn't hear the whole of her description but it certainly ended "...and they all follow after."
     Children brought up in this environment can understand the Biblical pictures that were designed to explain things but which have become obscure to many non-rural people.  Here, we exclaim "Oh, I see: that's how we might follow Jesus if we recognise that his call is leading us to something in life that will feed our needs."