Baarack The Sheep

A couple of years ago, Baarack the sheep had drifted away from the herd and began wandering the bushlands of Victoria, Australia. He was on his own for over five years, and during this time, without a shepherd to look after him and shear the wool from him periodically, the wool continued to grow and insects and dirt and twigs would get tangled in it. When he was eventually found again, he had over seventy five pounds of wool to be sheared off. The ones who found him couldn’t believe there was still a living sheep buried under all of that wool. Baarack the sheep is a good example for all of us. We are all sheep in the flock of the Good Shepherd. As imperfect people in a fallen world, we all have a weight of guilt and disappointment and trauma and pain that constantly piles up on us, just like the wool kept growing and growing and getting heavier and heavier on Baarack the sheep. But we can all turn to the Good shepherd as often as we want. Christ can shear off all of that heavy weight, and when it grows back again, we can return to the good shepherd and be sheared and cleaned again. We don’t have to wait until the wool of imperfection grows so big that it obscures our vision and causes our knees to buckle under its unbearable weight. We have an opportunity each Sunday to partake of the Sacrament, renew our Baptismal covenants, be cleansed of our sins and be shorn of all of the weight we carry in our souls. The Good Shepherd does not like to see His sheep weighed down with sorrows. He wants to lighten those burdens as often as we will let him. I know that every time we turn to Christ, He will remove the burdens we carry, again and again and again.