“Be who you is, not who you ain’t”

Last week as I attended a planning meeting in Glen Eyrie, Colorado, I became fascinated with the small herd of big horn mountain sheep that had full run of this gorgeous, well manicured property and home of the Navigator Ministry. Every day we would see these sheep walking in and out among the trees on the grounds almost close enough to touch them or even to walk between them. The males with their big horns would run in a group lead by one of the sheep; probably the “alpha” sheep who incidentally rushed to stand in between me and the sheep I tried to take a picture of.

Last week as I attended a planning meeting in Glen Eyrie, Colorado, I became fascinated with the small herd of big horn mountain sheep that had full run of this gorgeous, well manicured property and home of the Navigator Ministry. Every day we would see these sheep walking in and out among the trees on the grounds almost close enough to touch them or even to walk between them. The males with their big horns would run in a group lead by one of the sheep; probably the “alpha” sheep who incidentally rushed to stand in between me and the sheep I tried to take a picture of.

These sheep seemed unimpressed with us humans. It was as if we were the ones invading their space. They politely tolerated us and perhaps even sensed that they needed to perform every now and then to keep the “tourists” happy. One morning, almost on cue, with a capacity audience as the parking lot was crowded to overflow, three females demonstrated how to eat from the bushes on the craggy rocks ascending the mountain.  They were so naturally fleet of foot – living out of what they were designed for – all in a day’s work to them.

The sheep were acting exactly like sheep, big horn mountain sheep. They were doing and being exactly what God intended them to be doing and being- very sheeplike. They were not acting like the wild turkeys that also lived on the property nor were they hopping around among the low brushes like the rabbit I saw outside of our room.

When I got home to Texas I could not get my new friends out of my mind- these delightful big horn sheep. I wished I could return and watch them some more. Their playfulness intrigued me. Their abandonment to act out of who God made them to be was refreshing. They were fulfilling their created calling – right out of Isaiah 43:20 “The beasts of the field will glorify me; the jackals and the ostriches…” Earlier Isaiah also writes, “everyone who is called by my name, and whom I have created for My glory, whom I have formed even whom I have made.”

The message of these big horn sheep became clearer. They were simply doing what God created them to do. Watching it was delightful and in that, they brought God so much glory. They became a visual reminder to me that we best glorify God when we live out of who He created us to be. Am I? Are you? As a friend of mine drew on her note cards- “Be yourself, who else is better qualified.”