Of Missing and Broken Shepherds

By Gemie Johnson Martin

As I was putting away our Christmas decorations in late December 2019, I was reflecting on how rough it was for shepherds at our house that year. It started during the summer, when a package arrived from Jericho, Israel. One of the olivewood figures to the Nativity I purchased while there, a kneeling shepherd, had broken in transit. I placed a quick call to Jimmy’s Bazaar and soon another arrived to replace it.

For years we have had a hand painted ceramic Nativity set. This year I placed it to be displayed on a shelf of the hutch at my husband Jerry’s computer desk to keep it out of easy reach of the smaller visitors we were expecting. You guessed it. Jerry presented the shepherd to me in two pieces. I super glued his head back on and returned him to his sheep on the shelf placing him back a little further from the edge.

Years ago, my sister Marlene did tole painting. Pictured is a Nativity puzzle she made. I intentionally put this Nativity down where the children can play with it. When I went to play with it myself a few days after Christmas, I realized one figure was missing. It was the shepherd. We looked high and low for him. I worried that perhaps he had been inadvertently thrown out with the Christmas wrapping paper and boxes. Photos taken Christmas morning confirmed that he was with the set on the large table that sits in the center of our living room as we were opening gifts.  After several days, our missing shepherd finally turned up 20 miles away in Coppell, Texas in my three-year-old grandson’s new fire truck which had been opened at our house Christmas morning. Seems this shepherd had taken on a new profession. The stow-a-way shepherd piece is now safely put away with the rest of the puzzle.

 

The shepherd piece is missing from the puzzle in the picture above. 

 The shepherd that was missing is the figure in a brown robe on the right in the picture above.

I posted the above story and pictures on Facebook.  The comments of two of my friends caused me further reflection.  Carma wrote, “The story of the lost shepherd, not sheep.  Nice take.” Reflecting on her comment, I started sensing a deeper meaning in my experience and the place of shepherds in the Nativity, especially that living Nativity on that first Christmas night.  That small babe in the manger, was in fact, the Son of God, the most important human being ever to be born into mortality.  And he would grow up to liken Himself to a shepherd and us to his flock.  Just as a shepherd watches over his flock of sheep, so we are watched over by our Savior, the Good Shepherd.

It was to shepherds that this most important of births was first announced by angels on that glorious night so many centuries ago.  Shepherds who were at their post, “keeping watch over their flock. . .” (Luke 2:8). My husband Jerry and I were privileged to visit what is presumed to be the field where these shepherds experienced this miraculous event.  Those humble shepherds believed the angel who appeared to them.  They went to worship the newborn babe who was to become the Savior of the world.  Yes, shepherds were very important in the events that transpired at our Savior’s birth. Their significance should not be lost to us.

Our Savior has given us the charge to become shepherds like Him. “Feed my sheep,” (John 21:17) he directed his early disciples.  Modern prophets have instructed us that this directive applies to us as well.   As ministers, we are to stand in place of our Savior, the Good Shepherd.  We are to care for and watch over His sheep, our fellow human beings.  We are to share the good news of the gospel with them. We are to love them and care for those of them who need our care.  Sister Bonnie H. Cordon in her conference address entitled “Becoming a Shepherd,” posed the question, “So, how do we become the shepherds the Lord needs us to become?” Her answer, “. . . we can look to our Savior Jesus Christ—the Good Shepherd. The Savior’s sheep were known and numbered, they were watched over, and they were gathered into the fold of God.” (October 2018)

But we are not perfect like our Savior.  Unlike Him, we sometimes make mistakes in our lives.  At times, we find ourselves off course.  As imperfect beings, subject to temptations and sin, we may find ourselves in places we are not supposed to go, doing things we are not supposed to be doing (as was the case of my puzzle piece shepherd).  We may also neglect to do the things we should be doing, like ministering to others. In short, we may wander from or leave our post.

When I discovered the broken olivewood shepherd and contacted the shop owner in Jericho, he not only promised to send me a shepherd to replace the broken one, he also suggested I glue that broken shepherd back together and keep him.  I took his advice and now have two almost identical kneeling shepherds.  I must look hard to determine which is the one that was broken and where the break occurred.

The Atonement works like this in our lives.  Our Savior, the Good Shepherd, has made it possible through His Atonement for us to become like new again.  The only blameless person to ever live, He needs no repairs in the form of repentance. In accomplishing the Atonement, He “. . .descended below [us] all.” (D&C 122:8) In some miraculous way, He suffered for all our sins and infirmities so that we do not have to suffer if we but choose to embrace the Gospel, repent of our wrongs and follow in His footsteps. As my friend Judy commented, “. . . the Master Shepherd wants all of His shepherds with him!  He will seek for them, repair their broken parts, and accepts them no matter how far they have gone astray.  He prepares a way for their return.” Just as I was glad to have my shepherd Nativity puzzle piece back, so will our Savior rejoice when His lost sheep (including lost shepherds) return to the fold.

You see a faint white line around the neck of this shepherd where his head was glued back on and a white chip at the base of his neck.

A tiny chip marks the spot where my ceramic shepherd was broken.  I may or may not purchase some flesh-colored paint to cover this chip (which shows up as a small white spot at the base of the shepherd’s neck).  He was broken, through no fault of his own, when someone carelessly knocked him from his place in the display. Often, like the ceramic and olivewood shepherds, our brokenness is not due to sin on our part.  Sometimes we are damaged through the wrongful choices of others. We can also suffer heavy burdens and trials as we go through this imperfect mortal existence. Again, our Savior stands ready, through His Atonement to comfort and heal us of our hurts and imperfections.  He not only suffered for our sins, but for our hurts and infirmities “. . . that his bowels may be filled with mercy . . . that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people. . .” (see Alma 7: 11, 12). In other words, because of his suffering, he knows how to care for us and what we need to heal from our sufferings.  In time, healing will take place.

There is security in knowing that The Good Shepherd, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, will never get lost, or leave his post.  He stands as a constant beacon, showing us the way to happiness and Eternal life.  That is His purpose (see Moses 1:39). 

I’m going forward in this new year and new decade with a renewed effort to follow Him who showed us the way to be good shepherds.  I have committed to memory the thoughts and feelings I had as I so recently stood in the field where the glorious announcement was made to those shepherds over two millennia ago.  I will pray more earnestly to know what the Good Shepherd would have me do in His place with those “sheep” who come within my sphere of influence and care.  I will try harder to be like Jesus, the Good Shepherd.