"Look at that!" Howard exclaimed on our way to church this morning. We were taking our favorite route, wending our way through the curves of Standing Bear Parkway when I turned to see something right out of the Make Way for Ducklings children's book. Crossing the bricked parkway in front of us was a mother goose followed single file by about a dozen adorable goslings! How incredibly cute! Their downy yellow-and-grey bodies waddling along so importantly awakened the child in me that wanted to scoop one up and cuddle the ball of fluff. They must have been hatched at the pond in Standing Bear Park and were headed to a grassy expanse and arena where the annual Indian Pow-wow is held.
In Sunday School, after prayer requests were prayed over, the teacher asked if anyone had any good experiences to share, and I told about the pleasure of seeing this little vignette of nature. Then Howard surprised me by telling about the baby pigs we have in the country. He told how they had scooted under the fence and ran to him when he drove up to feed them the other morning. Revealing a tenderness for animals I didn't know he had, and despite the inconvenience of getting them back inside, he said, "They were hungry, and just so cute and innocent, looking up at me for feed."
My husband went on, "It made me think of people in the world who are spiritually starving and searching for something to satisfy them," to which I injected, "And all they get is slop!"
"They are hungry for the gospel!" he emphasized, saying that when he hands out the scripture cards he has printed, people willingly receive them. "I give them to servers at the drive-through windows at McDonald's, and to clerks in stores." It's true, I've never seen anyone refuse them.
His analogy made me reflect that so many try to feed their inner craving, which is really a spiritual one, with pig-slop. All kinds of garbage is consumed in the forms of entertainment or other diversions and excesses, which only leave one empty and feeling degraded.
This morning our church had as guest speaker a young aspiring minister who was preaching his first sermon. We had been forewarned that he might be nervous and the sermon short, but we were pleasantly surprised. The incredibly young-looking preacher was a good speaker, giving a character study on the apostle Peter. He said he identified with Peter's many failures and being a "mess up," but he ended with Jesus giving Peter the charge to "Feed my lambs," and "Feed my sheep."
Young lambs and adult sheep need to be fed, just as Howard feeds our young pigs and their mother. (The other day I asked him how the pigs were, and he replied, "They were sweet.") Of course, Jesus was talking about people, my husband's concern, too. Although no longer a pastor, Howard has two preaching engagements coming up, and we work on Wednesdays with the children of the church. Feeding His lambs, and feeding His sheep. Sweet!
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