A flock of sheep grazing peacefully in a field is always a pretty sight. Few of us think about how hard it is sometimes to take care of them through the cold winter. At this time of year sheep are growing long, thick wool coats to keep them warm through the winter. In the spring when the lambs are born in the fields, they sometimes die because it is still too cold. They do not have warm, woolly coats when they are born. So if they arrive while there is still snow on the ground, some usually die.
Sometimes a mother sheep will die, leaving a little lamb without a mother to nurse it. The shepherd then has to find a way to take care of the little lamb so it will not die too. He can either try to feed it himself from a bottle or find a mother sheep to take care of it. However, usually no other sheep will accept the lamb, because it is not her own.
Now what do you suppose the shepherd does? He looks to see if there is a mother sheep whose own baby lamb has died. He finds her dead lamb, removes its skin and carefully places it over the body of the living lamb that has lost its mother. It is just like putting on a coat. The shepherd then takes the little orphan lamb to the mother sheep that has just lost her own baby. She sniffs the lamb all over, smelling mostly the coat of her own dead lamb. She thinks it must be her own baby, and she accepts it and nurses it.
This is just what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for those of us who have accepted Him as our Saviour. He is that Lamb who died on Calvary’s cross for us. Because of all that He did there for us, we can claim Isaiah 61:10: “He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness.” God the Father accepts us, not because there is anything good in us, but because He sees us wearing the “coat of salvation” that the Lord Jesus has given us.
Have you thanked Him today for dying on the cross so you could be saved from your sins and live with Him in heaven? “Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood . . . to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever” (Revelation 1:56).
ML-07/13/2003