There is a deep crack in the earth called the Great Rift in the state of Idaho. While it is not very big in some places, it is quite deep and wide in other places. One of two geological formations like it on earth, it was caused by volcanic activity long ago when gasses and magma were active near the surface of the earth, and it exploded and threw out big rocks and left a big crack in the earth.
Sheep are raised and cared for by shepherds on open ranges in the western United States by the thousands. The farmers separate the sheep into groups of 1000 ewes (mother sheep) called “bands.” Each mother has at least one or two lambs, so one band is a lot of sheep. There is only one shepherd per band to take care of all those sheep, but he has a Great Pyrenees dog to help him. Great Pyrenees are big dogs which are rather ferocious. Their job is to protect the sheep from bears, mountain lions, wolves, coyotes and even men who would like to steal them. The shepherds also have Border Collies, another kind of dog, to help them move the sheep.
The life of the shepherd is a lonely life. Most of these shepherds come from Peru where they have grown up around sheep and goats, or perhaps llamas and alpacas, in high elevations. Because of their background with animals, these shepherds know how to speak a language most of us don’t know how to speak. It’s a kind of body language. Most of them are very timid and quiet. They look down and put their hand out gently to shake your hand when they meet someone. But they know how to communicate with the sheep.
Olimpio is one of these shepherds. He is from Peru, and he has been coming to the U.S. for about 25 years. He lives in a tiny trailer, like the one in our picture, for at least 10 months of the year. He works for a man named Henry who owns a lot of sheep. Henry sponsors Olimpio to come back year after year because Olimpio is a good shepherd. Jeremiah 23:44And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the Lord. (Jeremiah 23:4) says, “I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them: and they shall not fear anymore, neither shall they be lacking.” “Neither shall any be missing,” it says in another translation for the end of that verse. Though this verse was written for another time, Paul says in Philippians 3:10,10That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; (Philippians 3:10) “That I may know Him.” We need to know God, and this verse in Jeremiah gives us a glimpse into God’s heart. It shows us that He doesn’t want anyone to be missing from His home in heaven. We need to decide: Will we listen to God and accept the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, or will we refuse Him?
Olimpio was always on the move. At the time of this story, he had Henry’s sheep far out in the Idaho desert, near the Great Rift. Every day before the sun gets up, the sheep want to leave to get to fresh grass. Olimpio takes them in a different direction each day, so they can have that fresh grass.
One day when he took his sheep out, five lambs got too close to the Great Rift and fell in. The Great Rift is around 65 miles long, and it is different depending on where you are along those 65 miles. In some places you can step across it, but in other places it is wider than a building and up to 200 feet deep. The lambs fell into the crack in a spot where it didn’t kill them, but they couldn’t get out. They were deep enough that Olimpio couldn’t climb down to rescue them and then get back out safely. So Olimpio called the farmer, Henry, using his cell phone. He was about 50 miles away from where Henry lives.
At that time, the price for lambs was so low that it was costing Henry more money to raise a lamb than he could sell it for. As far as dollars go, the lambs were worthless to Henry. Henry had to drive on a two-track trail for 50 miles to get to them, a rough trip that would take him two hours. It seemed like a waste of his time. But Henry cared about his sheep. So he got in his pickup and drove out to help Olimpio rescue the lambs. He looked down in the crack, and he could see that one man would have to go down to rope the lambs, and one would have to stay back to pull them up. He had a lariat, which is a rope with a loop on the end that can tighten. Henry let Olimpio down into the Rift with the lariat.
As Olimpio went down, they heard a sinister warning ... rattlesnakes! Rattlesnakes like to den up in the winter in cracks in the ground where the cold of winter can’t reach them. At that time, the snakes were beginning to come out of their dens. As Olimpio started climbing down, there were a lot of these poisonous rattlesnakes, and they were shaking their rattles as if to warn him, “Don’t come too close.”
Do you know of a snake in the Bible? Satan was in the Garden of Eden like a snake. Eve listened to Satan, and he got her to question the goodness of God, take of the forbidden fruit, and eat it. It is because of this that we are all sinners, and the curse of sin is on us.
Olimpio went down in spite of the warning from the snakes. He figured out how to get to the lambs and not get bitten by the snakes. He put the lariat around each lamb and Henry lifted it up and returned it to his mother. There was not one missing when they were finished.
The lambs were “worthless.” It cost Henry more to drive to rescue them than they could ever return to him. And this makes us think ... why did God see value in me? In you? We don’t know, but I’m so thankful that the Lord Jesus took my sins on the cross so that I could come into a relationship with Him and His Father. If He hadn’t, I would never be able to get out of the deep chasm of my sins.
Olimpio the shepherd going down into the rift with the snakes was like the Lord Jesus. Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd [gives] His life for the sheep” (John 10:1111I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. (John 10:11)). The Father sent Him down to this cursed earth. He wasn’t free from the curse of sin. When He died, He had a crown of thorns on His head, and they had beaten that crown into His head. There wouldn’t be thorns or death if there wasn’t sin. We are like those little lambs, lost in the deep chasm of sin and unable to get out. This is why we have to trust in the Lord Jesus to take our sins away, because we can’t do it on our own. But He will gladly do it for us. “He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And He [has] put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God” (Psalm 40:22He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. (Psalm 40:2)). Have you trusted in Him-3 as your Savior? If you have, then the Lord Jesus is your Good Shepherd.
Messages of God’s Love 5/4/2025