Prodigal: Mighty fine head covering you got there.

Me: I agree!

This is from the book God’s Psychiatry by Charles L. Allen

I will never forget what the coach said to us the first day I went out for football practice. He told us that football is a rough game and that if we expected to play it, we must also expect sometimes to get hurt.

So with life. If you expect to live it, you must also expect some bruises and hurt. That is just the way it is. And David, thinking of that fact, said in the Twenty third Psalm, “Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.”

Sometimes, as the sheep grazed. its head would be cut by the sharp edge of a stone buried in the grass. There were briars to scratch and thorns to stick.

Then, some days the sheep had to walk steep paths under a hot, merciless sun. At the end of the day it would be tired and spent.

So the shepherd would stand at the door of the fold and examine each sheep as it came in. If there were hurt places the shepherd would apply soothing and healing oil. Instead of becoming infected, the hurt would soon heal.

Also, the shepherd had a large earthen jug of water, the kind of jar which kept the water refreshingly cool through evaporation. As the sheep came in, the shepherd would dip down into the water with is big cup and bring it up brimful. The tired sheep drank deeply of the life-quickening draught.

Then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy people Israel, and bring them again unto the land which thou gavest unto their fathers. 1 Kings 8:34 (KJV)

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org