After being stranded at the bottom of a cliff for two years Britain’s ‘loneliest sheep’ Fiona has been rescued from Cromarty Firth in the Scottish Highlands and is now settling into her ‘forever home’ on a farm near Dumfries. Her prolonged isolation lay in the fact that the cliffs rose 250m and there seemed no safe way to reach her. She also hadn’t helped herself by piling on the pounds. weighing in at over 100kg. But five determined farmers finally set about her rescue. Cammy Wilson, who led the team, said ‘The only difference between us being heroes and idiots was a slip of the foot.’ It just goes to show how far some will go to carry out a rescue.
In the Bible Jesus describes himself as the Good Shepherd who has come to find his sheep and take them to their forever home. Like Fiona we have become lost as we have chosen to walk away from the God who created us. But his love for us drove him to carry out a rescue which like Fiona’s was costly and dangerous. Not an abseil down a cliff but being nailed to a cross. If only we will hear his voice, we too can look forward to our forever home.