Hello, God. It's me, Mara.

You know, Lord, chatting with friends can be rather interesting. "J. E." shared about her dad's horses, mentioning that they, among other animals, are herd animals. One horse they had was a jumper and another horse was a fence crawler; no fence could stop either of those rascals - so her dad chained them together, hoping that would help. Then there was a bit of commotion, a quick glance out the window suggested trouble! Checking it out, the "crawler" had succeeded in getting under the fence but the "jumper" was immovable. End result: take down the fence, and forget about chaining the two horses together.

Many animals are herd animals: cows, dogs, horses, mules, reindeer, buffalo, rodents, llamas, just to name a few. There's always a leader in a group of "animals" - human or otherwise. These leaders are natural leaders. The rest of the group/herd will follow. Friend "J.E." mentioned that as a youngster, her family also had sheep. One sheep was certainly a lead sheep; he'd follow the shepherd and the rest of the band followed him. They put a bell on him so that when it was time to move on he'd start out and the others would follow close behind. It was interesting that when an "outsider" spoke to the herd of sheep and tried to get them to progress, the sheep, as a group, refused to move. They did not recognize the voice in the phony "shepherd." Even the dogs would not obey.

We are Your sheep, Lord. We read in John 10: 4, 5: KJV, "... and when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him; for they know his voice (5) and a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him, for they know not the voice of the stranger." Thank You, Lord, for being our Shepherd!

Love, Mara