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"Lambing" in New Zealand The beautiful,
green hills of New Zealand, a country known for its sheep industry, are dotted
everywhere with white sheep.
During the yearly lambing season, thousands of baby lambs are born.
Unfortunately, some lambs die at birth. Many mother sheep are also lost during
lambing season; they die giving birth. In an attempt to save the orphaned lambs,
the shepherds match baby lambs who have lost their mothers with mother sheep who
have lost their lambs. It's not as easy as it sounds, though, since a mother
sheep won't accept a lamb and nurse it unless it is her own.
How, then, do shepherds get a mother sheep to accept an orphaned lamb as her
own? The process is as old as shepherding itself.
The mother's own lamb, which has died, is skinned, and the skin of the dead lamb
is draped over the living lamb as it is placed by the adoptive mother's side.
The mother sheep then smells the skin and accepts the orphaned lamb as her own.
Lambing season in New Zealand reminds us of what was done for us on a cross two
thousand years ago. When the Apostle John wrote of being saved by "the blood of
the Lamb," it was in terms that people in agrarian societies vividly understood.
The Apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesians, "But now in Christ Jesus you who once
were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. For he... has
destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility..."
Because of Christ's blood, God accepts us as His own.
Once we were orphans, but now we are God's adopted children.
Edited from Hot Illustrations for Youth Talks by Wayne Rice.
Copyright 1994 by Youth Specialties, Inc.
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