The Lambs in our Lives

“Like a good shepherd, he takes care of his people. He gathers them like lambs in his arms. He holds them close, while their mothers walk beside him.” Isaiah 40:11 (ERV)

I don’t know who the vulnerable are in your world right now. Maybe you’ve experienced the Good Shepherd’s care for you, but you’re wondering about your sons or daughters, nieces or nephews, mentees or disciplees, foster children or co-workers: does God notice them? Do they notice Him? 

Is He considering their fragility and development as He leads? 

Does He realize how much their welfare weighs on you, and yet how incapable you are of carrying them through life, noticing each and every danger and defending them from it? 

Nestled in a chapter of scripture that begins with comfort and ends with strength, comes this pivotal image offering us both: 

A Shepherd, most attentive to the vulnerable and weakest.

A Shepherd, carrying them where they’re most secure. 

A Shepherd, setting a sensitive pace for the concerned mom to walk beside Him.

A Shepherd, intervening in ways that she cannot. 

Sheep, who are with young, as other versions translate it, cannot carry their young. It’s physically impossible for a sheep to pick up her lamb and take it along with her, and it’s improbable that she even knows where safety might be found. To bleat in complaint that she should be the one bearing the lamb’s weight herself would be senseless, so the only thing left for the sheep to do is follow the shepherd who takes her lamb in his arms and trust that He does a better job at holding them.

When you’re burdened about the vulnerable in your life, it isn’t your responsibility to carry them, but to walk beside Him.