But Jacob said to him, “My lord knows that the children are frail, and that the nursing flocks and herds are a care to me. If they are driven hard for one day, all the flocks will die. Genesis 33:13 ESV

While he was a young man, unlike his brother Esau who had been primarily a hunter, Jacob took care of his father’s flocks of sheep and goats. Then over the next twenty years, Jacob worked for his father-in-law doing guess what? Yup – he was still messing around with sheep and goats! So, if there was one thing that Jacob knew, it was how to walk with the flock. Now, I am by nature a hurrier. I used to rush through breakfast, speed out the door like Dagwood on the way to his job, and wolf down my lunch, afraid of falling behind. But when I became a grandfather, I learned the delightful art of walking slowly with my grandchildren. They stopped to look up at birds, bent down to pick up acorns and stomped in every available mud puddle. They taught me that efficiently speeding around the block was far inferior to genuinely enjoying the journey and seeing all the wonders along the way.

How strange it has been to learn that at the opposite end of life’s spectrum, in nursing home ministry that what I learned from my grandchildren works there as well. When I stop in to see my friend Lorna I can’t simply ask, “How are you doing Lorna?” without giving her a minute to gather her thoughts and tell me about her doctor’s visits, the nice young lady who took her to church or her daughter’s plans to visit for Mother’s Day. Spending time with people who don’t have many visitors means that they want to soak in every moment they can while we are with them. I was struck this past Sunday by a testimony from a couple in their eighties, who serve in our church’s nursery. During their talk, the pastor showed a short video of them holding babies, and gently rocking them. They had learned that walking with lambs means that sometimes we even have to carry them!

Who are the lambs where you live? You may need to pray and ask God to open your eyes to the see them. And walking with lambs means slowing our pace, because getting places on time is far less important than arriving with every lamb that God has put in your care!

For those with an interest in learning more about nursing home ministry, I have written a book filled with stories about some of the lambs I have met along the way. Walking With Lambs is available in both soft cover and eBook format on Amazon.