Shepherds Abiding in the Field

Last night I read part of Luke 2 with my children and tried to get them to fill in the blanks of the story. For example, I read, “And Joseph also went from Galilee, out of the city of ____________”, and I tried to get them to come up with the word Nazareth. As I moved through the story doing this, I had one son who consistently answered, “Shepherds!” As a joke he tried shepherds for just about every answer until finally I read, “And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the __________.” But this time, not realizing that shepherds was indeed the right answer, he exclaimed in an effort to mix things up, “Cow!” We all had a good laugh. And I decided that some of my children need to hear that story a little more often.

I read the story again this morning and reflected on the importance of shepherds in the nativity story. We read, “And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.” They were humbly and faithfully taking care of their sheep in the night, and when they learned that the Savior had been born, they went “with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger” (Luke 2:8, 12). They didn’t know then that this Babe in the manger was the perfect Shepherd who would later declare, “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine” (John 10:11-14). The Infant these mortal shepherds beheld that night would become, as Peter later wrote, “the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls” (1 Peter 2:25). Paul similarly described Him with these words, “That great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant” (Hebrews 13:20). How fitting it was that these humble shepherds would be the first to come and adore the “chief shepherd” during that glorious night in Bethlehem (1 Peter 5:4).

The fact that it was shepherds who first came to see Jesus reminds us that He also wants us to be shepherds to those around us. This is most clearly taught in these words of rebuke to ancient Israel: “Thus saith the Lord God unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks?... The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them…. Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of the Lord; As I live, saith the Lord God, surely because my flock became a prey, and my flock became meat to every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, neither did my shepherds search for my flock, but the shepherds fed themselves, and fed not my flock” (Ezekiel 34:2, 4, 7-8). The Lord expects His servants to be shepherds to others, and He is displeased when they feed themselves and neglect their sheep. He calls all of us who claim to love Him, like Peter, to “Feed my sheep” (John 21:16). He wants us to strengthen the diseased, heal the sick, bind up that which is broken, bring again that which is driven away, and seek that which is lost.

In his first address in general conference as a counselor in the First Presidency, President James E. Faust told a powerful story about how he neglected a young lamb he was supposed to watch over. The lamb was bleating one stormy night when he had forgotten to put it in the barn, and he failed to go out into the storm to take care of it. It was dead the next morning. He reflected, “Brethren, after more than sixty years, I can still hear in my mind the bleating, frightened cry of the lamb of my boyhood that I did not shepherd as I should have. I can also remember the loving rebuke of my father: ‘Son, couldn’t I trust you to take care of just one lamb?’ If we are not good shepherds, I wonder how we will feel in the eternities.” The Good Shepherd wants all of us to likewise be good shepherds to those given to our care. Just as the shepherds at his birth went with haste to see Him, we should likewise go with haste to follow Him and care as best we can for His sheep.