This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad. Psalm 118:24. Heartbroken Lambs.
On Wednesday evenings (during the retreats), I often carried out the following experiment. How would you have responded? Those in attendance would gather 'round a small table on which I had placed the cuddliest little stuffed lamb you ever saw. It had a lovely knitted blanket on its back. I explained my dilemma to the group.
"This poor little lamb has been standing like this for days. It won't eat or drink. It will not come to me when I call it. It makes no sound. What am I to do?"
Each person in the group was to write down his or her answer on a piece of paper, fold it and give it to me. If you wish you can write your answer as well. Do it now- before reading on. I would take all the answers, mix them up so that no one knew who wrote what, and then I would read them aloud one by one.
What has constantly amazed me, in the many years I gave these conferences, no one has ever asked:
"Why does it have a blanket on its back?"
When the group finally focused on the blanket, I removed it from the lamb. Underneath, we saw long strands of barbed wire wrapped around its body. It was bleeding at all those points where the barbs punctured the skin. This poor little creature could not move, even if it wanted to. Now let's look at those answers again:
"Your answer ___________________________________."
Can you imagine how that little lamb would have suffered if any one of these things were done to it? Yet, we do the very same thing to many suffering hearts that come into our life.
The lamb symbolizes a person, the barbed wire symbolizes some of life's painful and traumatic experiences, and the blanket symbolizes what people do to hide these experiences from others. Remember, persons in the group were not able to see the lamb's pains because they failed to see how it masked or covered them up, to hide them. They failed in seeing how the pains were covered up because they did not see what they were looking at.
Where are these suffering lambs? Everywhere. Your spouse may be one, your child may be one. Your parent may be one. Your pastor may be one. They are everywhere. And each person has his or her own blanket (if you look you will see it) that he or she uses to cover the painful experiences, inflicted on them by others. The only time a person with that much pain will confide in you, is when that person hears Christ's voice coming from your mouth. "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me." (1)
22.2 The bottom line.
Whether it is your spouse or your children or anyone else, never, never, never force anyone to do something he or she does not want to do or cannot do, for you do not know what bitter painful experiences his or her heart is wrapped in. You should know by now that forcing others to do things against their will is not a prompt that comes from the Holy Spirit. Learn how to speak to others with our dear Lord's voice, a voice of love and compassion, understanding and mercy, a voice of life, healing and resurrection, the voice of the good Shepherd.
Footnotes.
1 John 10:27