Have you ever studied sheep? Have you ever been around sheep? They are not unintelligent, they can remember faces and voices and recognize emotion. But they have flock mentality and are pretty needy little creatures. That is where a shepherd comes in.
Wikipedia has a good article on sheep and all their characteristics, but ends with a nice section on the religious role of sheep:
“Sheep play an important role in all the Abrahamic faiths; Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, King David and the Islamic prophet Muhammad were all shepherds. …
Collectively, followers of Christianity are often referred to as a flock, with Christ as the Good Shepherd, and sheep are an element in the Christian iconography of the birth of Jesus. Some Christian saints are considered patrons of shepherds, and even of sheep themselves. Christ is also portrayed as the Sacrificial lamb of God (Agnus Dei) and Easter celebrations in Greece and Romania traditionally feature a meal of Paschal lamb. A church leader is often called the pastor, which is derived from the Latin word for shepherd. In many western Christian traditions bishops carry a staff, which also serves as a symbol of the episcopal office, known as a crosier, which is modeled on the shepherd’s crook.”
It seems like maybe we should consider sheep and their behavior a little more if they are mentioned so much in the bible and referenced so often in our faith. The bible says that there are only two groups of people – sheep and goats – and that God will shepherd the sheep. Matthew 25: “32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.” Maybe we need to make sure we know how to be a sheep (note the answer is further on in Matthew 25).
Do we want to be sheep in the flock of the Good shepherd? Are we? If we are, God will take care of all our needs. We can be at peace knowing we have a God who cares!
