The Power of Prayer

Things are often lost around here. A pin, my wallet, an important paper, and of course sheep. We were always taught to pray to Saint Anthony for his intercession in finding our lost items. This time he came in clutch BIG TIME!

Thursday morning when I drive the tractor out to feed the Rambouillet ewes, there’s a lamb! He’s born about a week early so I am surprised to see him. He’s big, up, and running with his mother on her way to the feed row. He must have been born Wednesday evening before it got too cold, as it is quite frosty this morning, and if he would have been born this morning, he would have still been wet and frozen. I try to catch him to take he and his mother to the barn, but he is lively and wild already! His mother also won’t herd away from the rest of the ewes with him, so I decide to leave him. She’s a good mother, even as a first timer, and he is strong and healthy, already slept one night out and it’s supposed to stay warm so I am not too worried about him. We are going to work the whole herd through the corral the next day, to vaccinate and keep the ones close to lambing in closer to the barns, so I will keep he and his mother in then.

Friday morning we go out to the pasture to bring the ewes into the corral to work. The lamb is not with them… but his mother is, with a tight bag meaning that he hasn’t sucked for a while. I panic. The guys tell me they saw him last night before dark, but when they checked at light this morning, he was no where to be found. I walk around the entire pasture looking for him, praying for St. Anthony’s intercession in finding our lost lamb the entire time. Looking down holes, as new born lambs can often get stuck in them, looking in the thick brush, bunch grass patches, and along the creek bank. Nothing. We work the ewes, turning the mother back out in the pasture where her lamb is hopefully still alive somewhere.

Friday night, still no lamb. My mom wonders if an eagle got him, the guys think he is in a hole, and I wonder if he washed down the creek… I remind myself to have faith in God, that he can still be found.

Saturday rolls around with still no sign of our missing lamb. I definitely think he’s dead at this point. I am so sad; so baffled on what happened to him. I wish we at least could find his dead body so that we have an explanation and can graft a bum lamb on this good first-time mother. I learned my lesson, don’t leave the lamb out.

Sunday morning I drive out to feed the ewes that are left in the pasture, and THERE’S THE LAMB! I watch it to make sure it’s not a new one, it’s not. He’s there with that same mother ewe, full as a tick! I cry tears of joy thanking God for this miracle I have just witnessed. “[He] was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.” Luke 15:24. I call Ever, my mom, my dad, my sister, and send a picture to my friends to tell them all the great news! “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.” Luke 15:6. I am so overjoyed, I truly can’t believe this lamb just appeared. It is normal for mother animals to stash their babies in the brush and go back to them, but I didn’t expect this of this shy, unknowing, first-time mother, and for this long! I am still not even sure what ever happened to him or where he’s been this whole time, as we have continued to look each day. I throw the tractor in park and get that ewe and lamb to the barn right then and there before feeding, I am not making that mistake again.

My eyes fill with tears again when I realize the correlation of how our Savior, the Lamb of God, died on a Friday and rose on a Sunday, just as this lamb “died” on a Friday and reappeared on a Sunday. “…that he was raised on the third day…” 1 Corinthians 15:4. What a beautiful, miraculous, and joyous day God has blessed me with, certainly one of many. Thank you St. Anthony for your prayers; thank you God for keeping our lost lamb safe.

Let lambing begin!