sheepish grin

A couple of my favorite Canadian friends turned me onto this new CD, just released in late May, by a band called mewithoutyou. I bought a couple and shipped one of these "It's All Crazy! It's All False! It's All A Dream! It's Alright!" CDs (what a long title) to one of the guys stuck out in the little town of MooseJaw, somewhere in the Canadian wilderness. Not many stores around and even the WalMart in Winnipeg was out of stock. It struck me as funny as I walked through the metal detectors at the post office with 2 packages bearing Canadian addresses, that I sure ship alot to Canada... but... that's another post coming soon... about Canadians and all.

I started listening to this CD, which is not quite the style of music I prefer, but I love the lyrics. And you know how you have those moments when you hear something for the first time and the meaning hits you with something you never thought of before, yet it's so very simple. I had one of those moments.

In the song "A Stick, A Carrot, & String", it starts out describing Jesus being born in a manger... and as I heard the words "to keep him warm, the sheep drew near so grateful for His coming here... come with news of grace... come to take my place...", it hit me as such a beautiful thing. Those sheep, the sacrificial animal throughout history, saw their replacement being born. They would no longer have to be led to the slaughter for the sins of men.

Now did the sheep actually think that? I don't know, and the next typical phrase would be "I doubt it", but ya' know... I actually think it is very possible knowing some of the unusual ways God works.

The significance of it being shepherds to whom the good news was first brought has increased in my mind. The angels said "for unto you is born this day in the City of David, a Savior..." and I picture God thinking as he watched those shepherds standing on the hillside, mouths gaping as they beheld the glory of the angelic host surrounding them, "Come check out my little lamb"