They Would Not Love My Lamb
Glenn W. Worthington
Copyright 2012 by Glenn W. Worthington
Smashwords Edition
Two young boys and a lamb were in an open field. But the three were not playing together. One boy had a rope around the lamb's neck and was forcing it to follow him. The other boy was behind the lamb, switching it with a stick.
In the sky above them storm clouds were moving in to block the sun. Darkness was coming. All around them the countryside hushed. Fall had arrived. Cold engulfed the land and with that cold came death to many living things. The leaves one the trees turned beautiful colors and dropped to the ground.
The boys continued their hurried pace, and the lamb was dragged along with them. The farmhouse they were anxious to get to was in sight, but still quite a long way off. So the boy in the lead started running. The lamb tried desperately to keep up, but its legs were too short. As it got behind, the rope naturally tightened the grip it had on the lamb's neck. And the boy in back swatted the lamb more and more with the stick.
They did not slow any as they went down one side of a ravine, crossed a small creek, and then started up the other side. Once past that obstacle, the three ran through a briar patch. The lamb's wool collected every thorny burr it brushed against. After they reached the other side of that patch, there was just an open field to run across before they would reach the farmhouse.
It was a large, white house that was always kept clean and freshly painted so that it would at all times be impressive from the outside. The mother had seen the boys coming from as far off as the creek, and now she went to the front door to see what they were doing. When the boys reached the porch, their mother opened the door and asked, "Where did you boys get that precious, little lamb?"
"We found it."
"We found it," they answered, almost in unison. "Where did you boys find it?"
"Over there," the younger boy replied, pointing in the general direction from which they had just come.
"How far 'over there'?" the mother asked. "Was it on our property or the neighbors?"
"Well..." the boy paused, and looked at his older brother. The oldest one nodded to him, and they both told her, "Yes".
"And you just happened to be carrying that rope with you when you found it?"
"Uhhh...," the younger boy paused again, and then the older one took charge.
"Well, see, we knew where to find the lamb because Judy Harris saw a stray one and told us where it was."
"If Judy found the lamb, then it's hers, isn't it?"
"But we paid her for telling us where it was," the older boy explained.
"Yeah, we paid her. So it's ours fair and square. We both gave her our fifteen-cent allowance. "
"That's quite a bargain you boys made. And just what do you plan to do with the lamb? It'd be too much trouble to keep."
"We don't want it for a pet. We want you to cook it for our supper."
"What! You could get more meat off of a chicken than you could that poor, little lamb."
"We still want to eat it anyway," the older boy insisted.
"Yeah, Mom, can we?" the younger one begged.
"Oh, I don't know. Go ask your father. See what he says."
"Where is he?"
"I think he and a hired hand are working on something in the barn."
The older boy said, "Okay," and with a jerk on the rope they headed off for the barn. The chickens in the yard scattered with a chorus of clucks and cackles as the boys and the lamb dashed right through the middle of them.
The barn they were running to was in bad shape, compared to the farmhouse. It had a rugged exterior. Boards were missing here and there. The knotholes in the boards that were up made it look like it had been through a war.
When they reached the barn, the oldest boy grabbed a weathered door and pulled it open. As they were stepping inside, the lamb was given another swat with the stick to hurry it along.
The thick storm clouds outside were blocking the sun. This made it particularly dark inside the barn so the boys left the door open to help give them light. As they were entering, they noticed a cow in one of the stalls. It swished its tail to kill a fly and continued chewing its cud.
The boys walked on by and headed for the workbench at the back of the barn. The boys' footsteps were muffled by the straw on the floor as they walked. Their noses were filled with the smell of the cows and their manure. It only took a few moments for them to find the two men.
Their father, who was actually just their step-father, greeted them with a pleasant, "Hi, boys" .
They each replied with a "hi" of their own.
Then their father said, "What have we here?" as he squatted down to pet the lamb.
"It's a lamb we found," the old boy replied. "You found it?"
"Yes," the boys replied .
Then the younger one blurted, "We want to have him for supper."
"’For supper'!" the father repeated in disbelief."Oh, you're surely joking." The father looked at the lamb tenderly and petted it a few more times.
It looked as though the boys weren't going to get their way, so the older one said, "Mom promised to cook it for us if you would slaughter it."
"Did she?" Both of the boys nodded that this was true. "Oh, but it seems like such a waste," their father complained. "This lamb is healthy. There's no reason to kill it."
"But we want to have it for supper," they both insisted. The father looked down at the lamb and petted it again. Everything was quiet for a minute. Then, because he wanted to please the boys, he told his hired helper, Romano, to take the lamb out and slaughter it.
The father stood up and wiped his dirty hands on his work jeans. But that only smeared the filth. It did not get them clean.
Although Romano was not happy with the father's decision, he obediently grabbed some rope, shears, and a large knife then left the barn. The boys followed Romano, pulling and prodding the lamb.
They walked quite a distance to a place outside the fence where it seemed many other animals had been slaughtered before. There was an assortment of bones lying on the ground. The most prominent was a cow's skull.
At first the boys were excited when they gave the lamb to Romano, but they began to feel differently as they watched him start the procedure. The darkening sky helped create an eerie mood for the event.
Romano bent down beside the lamb and reached under it. He grabbed two legs and forced the small animal to fall onto the ground. He tightly bound the lamb's two front legs together with some coarse rope then he secured the two hind legs in the same fashion. Next he reached for the dull shears and started clipping the lamb's wool. He snipped, pulled, and sometimes tore the fleece off.
Through all of this the lamb did not struggle to escape or even make a sound. It accepted the torturous yanks from its shearer without a cry. When he had finished stripping it, Romano collected the scraps of wool into one ball and handed it to the boy nearest to him.
The older boy protested, "Hey, let ME have that."
"No, he gave it to ME," the younger one insisted.
"But I want it," the older boy demanded.
So, to keep the boys from fighting, Romano had to divide the fleece evenly between the two.
Returning to his work, Romano went to a nearby dogwood tree and cut it down. The boys watched closely as Romano cleaned all the branches off the little tree. When he finished, he had a short, straight pole. The boys were so intrigued they barely noticed the sprinkles of rain that were beginning to drop upon them.
Romano carried the pole back to where the lamb lay waiting. He slid the pole between the lamb's two, tied, front legs and pushed it father until it went between the two hind legs as well.
With a firm grasp on both ends of the pole Romano lifted the animal up by its legs and carried it over to two, tall stones which stood a few feet apart. He set one end of the pole upon one stone, and then placed the other end on top of the second, tall stone.
The sprinkles had now turned into rain. Everybody was get- ting wet. The boys took their balls of wool and ran for the barn. The lamb was hanging upside down by its bound feet. Romano went to get the knife had had left on the ground.
It began to pour down even harder. The rain fell so hard that it hurt. Romano wanted to finish the job by slitting the lamb's throat, but he was getting drenched by the torrents of rain. So, he followed the boys and left the lamb dangling on the pole.
Once they all reached the barn they waited inside with their father for what seemed to be hours. It was a long, uncomfortable wait for Romano and the boys because they were so wet. But after a long time, the hammering rain did finally stop.
It was still sprinkling lightly when a friend, a rich man from a nearby farm, dropped by to visit with the father. At about that time Romano decided he should go make sure the lamb was out
of its misery. He took his sword-like knife and walked out across the sloppy field of mud. And, of course, the boys followed right behind him.
Once they were on the other side of the fence they could see the drooping lamb. Each one's eyes were fixed upon it the rest of the way, but no one detected any movement. The boys were ten feet away when they stopped, but Romano walked right up to the lamb with the knife in his hand. He slowly bent over to do the final task. Then he hesitated. Romano looked back at the boys, turned again to the lamb, changed his grip on the knife, set the blade to the lamb's throat, and cut. Blood and water gushed out. The boys were sickened by this sight.
Romano gave the boys a look of disgust then grabbed the pole. He carried the lamb right in front of the boys then headed back to the barn.
The father and his friend were standing in front of the barn talking as Romano returned with the lamb. The boys were close behind Romano and immediately broke into their father's conversation. They told him they just would not be able to eat the lamb now, after everything they had seen happen to it.
This angered the father, and with a scolding voice asked them, "Well, now what do you want me to do with it?"
Neither of the boys answered him. Silence prevailed for a minute. The rich man looked at the lamb carefully, and felt there was hope for life in it. He asked if he could have the lamb. The father was glad to let him take it.
Romano walked over and laid the body of the little animal in the rich man's car. The man got in his car then told the father, "Thanks, I'll be talking to you later," and drove away.
As soon as he was home, the man carried the lamb into his barn and untied the ropes that were on its legs. He then ran to his house for a sheet and some ointment. When the man returned with the items, he compassionately dabbed ointment on some of the lamb's sores.
He then ripped a long piece of cloth, folded it several times, saturated it with ointment, and placed the homemade bandage on the lamb's neck. He wrapped the lamb with the remaining piece of the sheet and placed it on some straw that was scattered along one wall.
The man then glanced around the barn and found an empty milk bucket. He turned it upside down and sat on it. He placed his elbows on his knees then put his chin in his hands and started watching the lamb.
The body lay without any movement, but the man continued to watch. Fifteen minutes passed. Then a half of an hour went by. The rich man began to feel stiff from sitting that way. He placed a hand on the lower part of his back and straightened up. It didn't make a popping sound, but it felt just as good as if it had. He sat up straight for a while.
After staring at the lamb for an entire hour, the man stood up and walked over to it. He knelt down beside the lamb and placed two fingers in front of its nostrils. He could not feel even a tiny breath.
The man lifted and laid back the sheet that had been covering the lamb. Its bare skin should have been a tender pink; but, instead, it was a deathly, bluish-gray color. There were a few patches of fuzz on the body which the shearer had missed. The rich man lovingly smoothed them down with his hand then leaned his head way over and placed it on the lamb's side. The barn was silent, for they were its only occupants. The man listened for a heartbeat, but his ears were not able to hear one.
The man raised his head up off the lamb. He placed both of his hands on one of the lamb's forelegs then bent it at the joint a couple of times. It moved freely. He thought, surely rigor mortis would have stiffened the body by now if the lamb had died. So the man continued to hope. Although there were no signs of life, at least death had not announced its arrival.
Everything was dark and quiet. The man waited for some type of a movement from the lamb, but none came. Time did not seem to be in a hurry to move the hands around the face of the man's watch. He continued to wait in the silence. His eyes ached from staring into the darkness. He shut them and saw no less than he had seen when they were open. He folded his arms then was still. Slowly, and without intention, the man fell asleep.
His sleep was not disturbed when, several hours later, the sun peeked over the eastern horizon. From the heavens the sun shot out a ray of light that penetrated the barn in one place, a quarter-sized hole where a knot had fallen out of a board. The spot of light, the size and shape of an egg, rested on the lamb's eye, illuminating it. The lamb had not made any movement of its own since it had been hanged on the pole. But now its eyelid blinked open then it shut slowly. The lamb was alive!
The eye did not open again for a while. But when it did, the eyeball also rolled back and forth. The lamb blinked quickly a few times. Then an ear twitched. It lay still with its eyes open for a while.
Since the lamb was alive it surely was breathing, as it must have been all along, but it still was so slight that it was not detectable. Had its heartbeat grown stronger? The man was not awake to check. He was not aware that the lamb had given any sign that it was alive.
With the passing of time the beam of light slowly shifted its angle until the sun no longer rested on the lamb at all. Now, a little tongue poked itself out of the lamb's mouth and then was snapped back in. One of its hind legs quivered slightly. It lay still again. Then, the lamb lifted its head some. The lamb used its forelegs to raise itself up. The linen cover slid down and exposed some of its bare, pink skin. The ointment made the bandage cling to the lamb's neck.
The lamb then took a slow, panoramic look at its surroundings. The lamb's eyes took a full sweep around before the man came into its view. The lamb looked at the man with recognition. Without turning its head back the lamb stood up and the linen dropped off.
It stood still to steady itself then walked the two steps to the sleeping man. The lamb sniffed the man's familiar scent. It did not rub against the man or lick his hand. It let him sleep.
The lamb turned and walked to the open door. It stepped through the doorway and looked at the flock of sheep on the hill. Before it went to rejoin its flock the lamb turned its head and bleated as if to tell the man, "Thanks for bringing me back home.
THE WOULDN'T LOVE MY LAMB (Study questions and clues)
This story is an allegory. The characters in it represent real people who were involved in actual events that actually did occur in the past. Can you figure out the hidden meaning behind this story?
1. Who does the lamb in this story represent? (Isaiah 53:5&7--John 1:29)
2. What was the author insinuating when he wrote that they didn't go through the gate, but took the wide path instead? (Matthew 7:13&14)
3. What is implied by the house being clean on the outside, but filthy inside? (Matthew 23:25-28)
4. Who does the mother represent?
5. Who is the father supposed to be, and what is suggested by the act of wiping his dirty hands on his work jeans? (Matthew 27:2&24)
6. Who is Romano a type of? (His name is a the clue. )
7. What is the significance of the cow's skull at the slaughter scene? (Matthew 27:33)
8. The boys divided the wool between themselves. What is this symbolic of? (Matthew 27:35)
9. The father allowed the rich man to take the lamb. Who does the rich man represent? (John 19:38)
10. What was found in Christ's tomb after He rose from the dead? (Luke 24:12)
11. The lamb went and lived among the flock forever. What group of people does that flock represent? (Psalms 79:13)
Author’s note: The lamb was not harmed while enacting the scenes from this story. The camera snapped quickly and the lamb was untied. Did it bother you to see how this lamb was treated? We should be even more upset that people treated God’s Lamb, Jesus, in an even worse way. But he suffered the punishment that WE deserve for OUR sins. Jesus paid the complete penalty that our rebellion and sinfulness requires. Although He died for everyone in the world each one of us must, individually, accept and receive his sacrifice for our sins. If you haven’t done it yet, please pause now and pray to God saying something like, “God, I believe in you. I admit that I have committed sins and done wrong acts that deserve your punishment. But I claim Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross as full payment for all of my selfish, evil thoughts and acts. Forgive all of sins. I invite your Spirit to come into my heart now and save me. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.”
***END***
Glenn W. Worthington is author of the ebooks, “Eagerly Desire to Prophesy,” “God-Inspired Visions and Dreams,” “Wrestling With Depression,” “Spread The Word Began in a Silo,” and “Understanding God Better.” This author also makes daily posts on his Facebook page “You Spread The Word.” Please visit that page each day to be strengthened in your Christian walk, encouraged, and comforted. You can share the posts and help spread God’s word across our nation and around the world.
Glenn
W. Worthington is also the author of the book, “Genuine Diamonds
Found in Arkansas” and host of the DVD “How To Find Genuine
Diamonds in Arkansas.” He posts news of diamond finds on the
Facebook page “Diamonds in Arkansas,” and has a website.
