The struggle is real, you can do something with all your strength and still ask why it didn’t seem like it was enough.  I can think of times I saw danger or a pending illness for the sheep and acted in a timely manner but still feel gutted when a ewe or a lamb dies anyway.  Just after medical treatment to remove blood sucking internal worms from 90 sheep, I find out four of them died within three days.  Or a ewe that was on her back, turned her over, saw she prolapsed, and placed a retaining harness on her. After she acted and looked normal I took it off.  Two weeks later her entire intestinal tract was outside her body.  And she was due with lambs anyday.  

I have my saves, in my flock are other ewes stuck on their back, a sure way to die without intervention, but they live and are doing great.  So now I have just bought a security camera, which will really help monitor for sheep on their backs, any possible intruders, and see if there are lambing problems.  Still my thoughts go to the negative side, because the ewe with the prolapsed her gut was just beyond the view of this new camera.  

I also think about suffering of trafficked children, the war in Ukraine, the messy political world.  And this suffering is in different forms, but so disruptive to mind and body.  I hate suffering in any form, for humans and for creation.  But until the Lord gathers His saints for the eternal kingdom, suffering is here to stay. Then I think of the eternal timeline and today’s pain, even at its most severe peak, will disappear in the future perspective of the perfect and sin free world yet to come.

The lamb pictured had to be put down. Five sheep were shot with arrows in 2020.

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