Heartthoughts: New Kids on the Block

The small flock of goats was gorgeous!  The owner had called them, carrying a pan of feed, and they emerged from the trees and mist almost ethereal in their beauty. The smallish animals owed their size to being half Pygmy and half Boer goat.  In mingled shades of white and brown or black and white, they presented a peaceful, pastoral scene straight out of a storybook.

Shiny, silky hair shimmered in the soft light, evoking visions of Solomon's Song of Songs,  "Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold thou art fair; thou has doves' eyes within thy locks: thy hair is as a flock of goats, that appear from mount Gilead."

"Dad, I found some goats to be given away!" our son, Greg, had called from his work the other day.  Two young goats had been listed in his company newsletter, and he knew Howard had been wanting some.  Now Greg, his son and the two little girls had gone with us as we followed in the truck to collect them and take them to the farm. 

I couldn't get over how cute they were!  Little prominences of horns were budding on their velvety foreheads above long-lashed, gentle eyes, at once trusting and uneasy as they bleated for their mother.  Cradled on the laps of Greg and the kids, they were gentled as they rode in the back of the pick-up until we placed them in their new, straw-strewn quarters.  Of course the children got into the pen, too, petting and cooing over them.

"Come on, get out," big brother Adam called when it was time to go.  Lifting the 6-year-old over the enclosure, he bumped her head on the low beam of the shed, eliciting an "Ow!" from his little sister.  She wasn't hurt, though,  just a little embarassed as she fled off to play by herself.  "There goes the 'scape' goat," Adam quipped laughingly.

Again, I thought of the Bible verse in Leviticus 16:10 mentioning a scapegoat that symbolically carried the sins of the people of Israel as it was driven away into the wilderness in a ceremony on the Day of Atonement.   A first goat was sacrificed for the forgiveness of sins, and the scapegoat was for the removal of guilt.

Jesus put an end to this system when as the Lamb of God He died on the cross once and for all for the sins of man, if they will receive Him.  We are the sheep of His pasture, and there is no more need for the sacrifice of innocent animals.  They bring joy not only to the hearts of the young, but also to  those who are young at heart, like my husband!