Like Casper, God looks after his flock

Casper has been in the news recently. He is a 20-month-old Great Pyrenees living on a sheep farm in Georgia. His job being to defend his flock. And that's just what he did in stellar fashion.

A pack of coyotes had mutton in mind. One obstacle stood in their way, and that was a one hundred pound dog named Casper. I'm assuming the attack occurred at night. It must have raised quite a ruckus because the owner of the sheep said it lasted a half hour.

Casper stood his ground despite the odds. We are not told how large the pack was — and maybe there was no way to know in the dark. But counting coyote carcasses added up to eight. That is one tough, dedicated defender.

The Great Pyrenees is a livestock dog, bred thousands of years ago for farmers in the Pyrenees Mountains — which forms the border between France and Spain. They guarded against bears and wolves. The background info I found says they are not only guard dogs — but guardians devoted to the sheep and to their human family.

King Louis XIV made them the royal dog of France in 1675. The Marquis de Lafayette, who fought alongside George Washington in the American Revolutionary War, brought the first Great Pyrenees to this country in 1824.

It helped Casper that he was naturally muscular — and double coated. Still the brawl cost him part of his tail and ripped sections of skin. He ran off after the fight, leaving a blood trail — needing time on his own to begin healing — but returned to his family two days later.

Sheep, and those caring for them, figure big in the Christmas story. Did you ever wonder why the sky opened in angelic splendor for shepherds — and not some other group of people? Jesus says He is the good shepherd who “lays down His life for the sheep.” He is also called the “Shepherd and Guardian” of our soul.

In a passage I particularly like Jesus sees the crowd who has come to hear Him teach about the kingdom of God with an authority — a certainty — they have never heard before. He feels “compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.”

The shepherds ran — as the angel directed — to see the newborn child that night, not really understanding that they were seeking — and finding — their own Good Shepherd. A shepherd who guides, defends, and provides for the sheep — who gives the inexpressible gift of eternal life.

And what is the sheep's best act? Placing itself in the care of the Shepherd.