Lamb and the Trap

I was working in Bridger, Montana, herding sheep on the sugar beet fields. My job was to keep the sheep in the unfenced fields to graze the beet tops after they had been harvested. I “rode herd” all day, every day, watching for sheep that may have gotten in to the irrigation ditches and were too waterlogged to get themselves back out again, dragging the ones that had already died there to the “bone pile” over in the woods, and keeping the flock from wandering onto the highway and causing a road hazard. There were roughly two thousand head of sheep to monitor, with no fencing around the fields they were grazing, and it was pleasant but tiring work.

The flock tended to be on the move at certain times of the day, almost like a small migration, and with that large number, I seldom saw the same animal twice.

One day as the sheep moved at a fast walk past me, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye that didn’t seem right. Mounting my mare, Talley, I eased slowly into the flock so as not to scare them, and there it was- a young yearling lamb was dragging a steel-jawed trap from her left hind foot. The roughly three feet of chain dragging from the clamped trap was kicking up a strange dust pattern, which was apparently what had attracted my notice earlier. I paused to think for only a moment. Knowing the young sheep would soon be lost in the myriad of wooly white backs where I would probably never see her again, I took my rope down, uncoiled it and made a quick loop. I had never tried to rope a moving sheep before and it was a little strange trying to figure out what size loop to form, and just how to go about it, but in the end, I decided, “what difference does it make? A cow or a sheep? Just go for it, girl!” I was always worried about an audience and being embarrassed, but it was just me out there with all those sheep. If I missed, the only ones who would know about it were the lamb and me. But if I could help that poor lamb, I would. If I couldn’t free her foot, it would cut off the circulation and she would lose her foot. And then she would die.

I knew I had one loop, one chance, to catch and rescue that lamb. I said a quick prayer, eased my horse closer, and the chase was on. A sheep can maneuver pretty fast when they sense danger, and even dragging a trap, that sheep could move!

Talley, having done this with cattle over the years, knew what was going to happen when I took down my rope, and she put me into just the right position to make the throw with little guidance. I swung my rope and gave it my best shot. And a miracle occurred!

I actually caught that sheep with one loop. “Thank you, God!” I said audibly, as I dropped from the saddle, funneled my hand down the rope to the sheep, and dropped her to the ground. It took a little work to spring that trap. I had to use my pocketknife for a little extra leverage in the jaws (I had to get a new knife after that!), but I finally got her foot free. I took the noose off her neck and let her up. She never looked back, but melted into the flock and was gone in seconds.

I felt good. I had helped another living creature and I hadn’t even messed it all up. Imagine my surprise and dismay when about a dozen migrant workers stood up all of a sudden from behind a hedge of brush only about fifty feet away. I had absolutely no idea anyone was out in those fields but me. They were all looking at me, grinning, and then they all started pointing at me and applauding! They were loud! I looked around to see if perhaps they were applauding something or someone else, but I was the target. I was so embarrassed! But golly, was I ever glad I hadn’t missed that throw.

I thought back on it later, and still do at times to this day. How often do we think that no one is watching what we are doing? We look around and think, “no one will know.” Whether we are doing good or evil, we figure we are safe. No one sees us.

But how often are our deeds witnessed by others that we don’t know are there, watching. Our lives are living witnesses. Who and how are we witnessing? Did they hear me thank God out loud? I don’t know. Did they even speak English? I doubt it. But if they did hear, they would have known the word “God” anyway.

It would have been a lot easier to just ignore what I saw and no one would have known about the lamb and the trap. I did what I knew to be the right thing. I found out after the fact that what I did was seen by others that I didn’t know were there. In our daily lives, we need to remember that others see what we do and how we live.

I may never know who, if anyone, is watching me, but I hope what they see is Christ in me.