Each day a lamb and his mother passed a pigpen while going to the pasture. The lamb watched the pigs wallow in the mud. It seemed like fun, especially on a hot day. The lamb asked his mother if he could jump the fence and wallow in the cool mud. She replied, “No.” The lamb asked the usual question, “Why?” The mother replied simply, “Sheep don’t wallow.”
Wallowing provides fun for the moment.
This, of course, did not satisfy the lamb. As soon as the mother was out of sight, the lamb ran to the pigpen and jumped the fence. He was soon feeling the cool mud on his feet, then on his legs, and soon on his stomach. After a few moments, he decided he’d better go back to his mother, but found that he couldn’t. He was stuck! Mud and wool do not mix! His pleasure had become his prison. He was hopelessly bound by his own folly. He cried out and was rescued by a kind farmer.
Refusing to wallow provides blessings for eternity.
God’s people are often like that curious lamb. Like ancient Israel, many modern Christians want to investigate the lures of sin without taking the advice of God’s chosen spokesmen, or their own experiences, or the warnings of their spiritual peers. Sin looks inviting and easy to walk away from whenever we wish. But in reality it mingles into the fiber of the soul and prevents us from escape unless we have a Savior. Let’s not allow the enticement of sin to become our prison or our slave master. Christians don’t wallow . . . they follow the shepherd! |L
Larry D. Pierson is the preaching minister of the Jamestown Christian Church, Jamestown, Indiana. He and his wife Ruth Ann have two children and two grandchildren.
