Lesson From A Lamb

On our recent trip to California we had the chance to go out to my Grandparent's ranch. Two weeks earlier they had a set of twin lambs. It was fun to see the cute little lambs. I learned a great lesson from one of the lambs.

Sometimes lambs need to be bottle fed. For one reason or another the mother does not feed the lamb, so they need to be bottle fed. My grandparents are so good about doing their best to take care of these lambs that need a little extra care. It is not a quick trip out to the ranch to feed the lamb two or three times a day. With this recent batch of twins one lamb was fine, but the other needed to be bottle fed. My grandparents named this little lamb Bam Bam because all the other sheep pushed him around a lot. Each day my grandpa would go out the the ranch several times to try and feed Bam Bam. Sometimes the little lamb would drink the bottle, other times he would just drink a tiny bit, and other times he wouldn't drink anything at all. When we were out we all tried as hard as we could to get this little lamb to eat. A few times we actually got him to drink the whole bottle. Unfortunately, one morning when we went over to the ranch we found Bam Bam dead. The little bit of milk that he had been getting was not enough. (there were other reasons too) As sad as this experience was, I learned a great lesson.

The Savior is often compared to a shepherd who watches over his flock. He knows each of His little lambs by name and does all that He can to take care of them. How often does the Savior come to us, wanting to feed us? He knows our needs, He knows what will heal us. Sometimes we are willing to receive Him and what He would give us, other times we reject Him. Life gets crazy with work and everything else going on, but He comes faithfully every day to feed us.

This story of Bam Bam the lamb really made me think. Each day Bam Bam would come running up to my Grandpa, glad to see my Grandpa and be near him. But Bam Bam didn't always drink. It wasn't enough to just be near my Grandpa, Bam Bam needed to partake of what my Grandpa was bringing him.

Likewise it is not enough to just be near the Savior, to be glad to see Him in a sense. We need to partake of what He wants to share with us in order to survive. He wants us to feel of His love, to feel His spirit, to become like Him. The only way to do those things, is to actually partake of what He would bring to us.

It just really made me think.

How often does the Savior try to feed me?