Fifth Wednesday of Lent

Pavel Kuznetsov, Shearing the Sheep (c. 1912)

Today's meditation is on the Good Shepherd - another favourite Bible story from childhood (John 10). I grew up in rural Lincolnshire, so I knew all about sheep, and a friend had a pet lamb they raised when its mother rejected it. I used to love feeding it from a bottle :)

Then, at college, often I would visit another friend's parents, who farmed in Wiltshire. I always remember being there at lambing-time, and getting up at all hours to help. I will never forget when a lamb was stillborn, and the shepherd grabbed its back legs and swung it around his head until it suddenly started breathing. Then it was put at its mother's teat along with its sibling...