I love that Christmas manger scenes involve animals adoring the baby Jesus. I am always excited to see sheep as part of the menagerie. Jesus is referred to as the lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world. Although the idea refers to the sacrifice that Jesus would make, just as lambs were sacrificed in Judaic traditions, I love the innocence of lambs related to Christmas traditions.
I think about lambs not just during this Christmas time. I was lucky enough in 2024 to see baby lambs twice in two hemispheres. What a treat! My most favorite aspects of our hikes in the United Kingdom in the spring the past few years has been seeing the baby lambs. I was delighted and unexpectedly thrilled that Chile has a large sheep production. Being there in spring, December, allowed me to see lambs for a second time in one year.
My father loved the sheep that we raised on our farm. Not many people in our area had sheep so we were somewhat of an anomaly. I raised sheep for 4-H projects for 8 years. I subscribed to The Shepherd Magazine for a decade and read each issue gregariously. I still have copies of those issues in my high school files. (I am going to have to purge them someday).
We sometimes had orphaned sheep that we raised. It was not unusual in March to have a big cardboard box on our back porch with a lamb or two in it so they could be bottle fed every few hours. Feeding continued twice a day for several more weeks when they were back in the yard with the others. All those sheep had names, of course, but we also knew that their plight in life was to grow up as meat animals.
I often fantasized about being a sheep farmer rather than the path I took in higher education. I would not have been successful in that endeavor. I remain thrilled, however, whenever a sheep appears in my life. Watching the shaking tails of little lambs makes me happy. Seeing sheep in Christmas scenes always elicits a smile.
You know I love anything with lambs! 😊❤️