Baaaaa: Chapter 4 of "A Hole in Our Gospel"

³¹"But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne.

³²"All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats;

³³and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.

³⁴"Then the King will say to those on His right, 'Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

³⁵'For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in;

³⁶naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.'

³⁷"Then the righteous will answer Him, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink?

³⁸'And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You?

³⁹'When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?'

⁴⁰"The King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.'

⁴¹"Then He will also say to those on His left, 'Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels;

⁴²for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink;

⁴³I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.'

⁴⁴"Then they themselves also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?'

⁴⁵"Then He will answer them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.'

⁴⁶"These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

Matthew 25:31-46 NASB

I must admit, the lamb IS cuter than the goat.... But then I never felt "cuter" than anyone. I was always frumpy, and I feel "frumpy" in the context of this passage, too. Yes, I give a few dollars to the soup kitchen or cans to the food pantry, or maybe something to the person on the street who asks for it. But I haven't given myself.... If I truly believed I was meeting Christ, wouldn't I stop what I was doing and make an attempt at truly spending time and effort with this person, and not just reaching for what I keep on hand in my pocket or in the glove box "just in case"?

Mr. Stearns does an excellent job of explaining that we don't have to give until we are on the street along side them, or even every moment of the day, but as God calls us... He also points out that the "goats" weren't the only ones surprised in the end! The "sheep" are just as shocked to find that they helped Him. Perhaps they didn't even realize they were helping the lowly, but thought they were helping a friend, a loved one... Perhaps they loved so thoroughly that they didn't realize that they had made friends among "the least of these..." I have a long way to go before I get there...

I hope and pray I'll be among the sheep when that day comes! God bless you all! Baaaaaaaaaa baaa baa baaaa-aa. (Sorry. I couldn't resist an opportunity to bleat.)