Contrary to popular opinion sheep are quite intelligent. They have an excellent memory for faces able to remember 50 other sheep by face persistently over a 2 year period. Sheep are as good at humans at finding faces in a crowd, and have opinions about what makes an attractive face. Sheep have strong instincts for following which shows excellent learning and cognition. They perform at a human level in some brain tests. They solve mazes quickly and retain the information for up to six weeks. In Iceland some sheep become leadersheep successfully leading their herd home before or through blizzards which threatened the lives of both herd and farmer. Mostly though, sheep want nothing more than to follow and they are very good at it. They have been seen defeating “hoof proof” cattle grids by rolling 8 feet across them. And their learning and following skills mean that once one has done this the whole flock has.
Sheep are ruminates, digesting fibrous plants inedible by humans. They have lived alongside humans for 10,000 years, exchanging food and protection for a host of gifts: meat and milk for food, wool and leather for textiles and tools, horn and bone for sharp hard tools, tallow for candles and hooves for glue. Jesus’ favourite metaphor for his followers was sheep. In their own abundant gift giving sheep also serve as an important analogy for Christ.
lyrics
mosquito a song about mosquitos
why do you circle around me
thorn in my side as you pierce my flesh
sucking the life out of my veins
leaving disease leaving me deranged
and i wish i could eradicate you
i wish that you would cease to exist
i wish that i could put something in your place
without you the world would be better than this
but i know,
i know that i need you
i know that you give just as much life
as you seem to take,
to take for your own self
oh jesus help me see the world
i wake up just having fallen asleep
to the itch just beneath that one piece of skin
that i just can’t reach, i can’t reach that deep
and i wonder how i could begin
to really work for a way to eradicate you
to find how how you could cease to exist
i’m sure that something else would take your place
and the world would be much better than this
then i wonder
wonder if i need you
not for your food or your pollination
but because you take
you take for your own self
exactly this kind of temptation
then i know
i know that i need you
i know that you give just as much life
as you seem to take,
to take for your own self
oh jesus help me see the world
follow a song about sheep
If you walk away
I will follow you
to wherever
you choose to lead
i care less about
figuring out
what is safe for me
than what we can do
follow, i will follow you through the blizzard across the river
follow, i will follow through the path takes many turns, oh i will learn
follow, i will follow running, rolling, dodging through, i will follow you
follow, i will follow
If you walk away
I will follow you
to wherever
you choose to lead
I’m ruminating on
gifts to offer you
to keep you warm
to keep you fed
don’t take me away
don’t take me away from you
I’ve always been the one
willing to die for you
Rocking the world through reflection on creatures the Anabaptist Bestiary Project is a ten piece alternative rock ensemble
under the creative direction of Trevor Bechtel. The ABP collects vocal and instrumental musicians from Bluffton University to delve into the artistic and literary heritage of the spirituality of creatureliness....more
