Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep

While driving through the Thompson River Canyon in northern Colorado, we came across a herd of Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep. The moment we stopped to take some pictures, the bighorns climbed the side of the canyon to escape the curious observers. While I was taking pictures of these magnificent animals, my wife commented on how easily and quickly the bighorn sheep could climb up the side of the canyon.

The reason that these bighorn find it so easy to navigate the side of the canyon is that it is what God created them for. Unlike other types of sheep that live in pastures, these bighorn sheep have been created with the abilities and agility to adapt to the harsh environment in which they live. Even from a few days old, they are balancing on the narrow ledges of the canyon because this is what God made them for, displaying His glory and wisdom.

A central concept of the Bible is righteousness. Everything in the Universe considered righteous or unrighteous to the degree that it conforms to the nature and purposes of God. He is the one and only standard for defining that which is righteous. He alone is the self-existent and consistent standard, uninfluenced by anything that is not Himself, against which everything else is measured.

The bighorn sheep that we had the blessing to observe could be regarded as righteous, as they were acting in accordance with God’s plan for them in creation. As they nimbly climbed along the ridges in the canyon walls, they showed the strength and agility which God gave them. This was an obvious demonstration of His wisdom and power for us to observe and glorify Him.

Sheep Gone Astray

Although every part of creation displays His attributes and power, God provided people a unique honor. We were created by his own hands to be image-bearers of himself. As creations of His hand, we belong to Him.

“For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand.” Psalm 95:7

He is our God. We are His. Where sheep are expected to act according to the instincts and abilities that were given to them by God, we have been designed to know and follow Him in everything that we do. Our identity, the essence of who we are, was intricately crafted to mirror who God is uniquely. So, in knowing and faithfully following Him, we fulfill our purpose of reflecting who He is, since what we do would demonstrate what He would do.

This is our standard of righteousness, God himself.

“The LORD is our righteousness.” Jeremiah 23:6b

The prophet Jeremiah was not just stating that God is righteous, that is self-evident. God is the embodiment of all righteousness. Since we are His and we were created to follow Him, the extent to which we portray His character and identity defines the standard by which our righteousness is measured.

Since God is our standard for righteousness, if we are being completely honest with ourselves, we are far from meeting that standard.

“All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned – every one – to his own way.” Isaiah 53:6a

Instead of living the perfect life that God planned and wants for us, we decide to go our own way. Isaiah pictured this as sheep that, instead of following the shepherd into safety and peace, went wandering off on its own. We live out of identities that are poor counterfeits of the one God created for us. The influences of others and our own decisions corrupt our attempt to define who we are and will be. Instead of searching for righteousness, we settle for and even celebrate unrighteousness.

The LORD is our righteousness

Malachi 3: 6, 7

The Good Shephard Restores

Culture communicates that we can be whoever you want to be. We are told that no one has designed an identity that is perfect for each of us. So, it is up to us to choose our own identity, because no one else can choose it for us. As one commercial states it, “Just let you be you.” So, throughout life, we wander down multiple pathways trying to find out who we are and were supposed to be.

Just like lost sheep that keep wandering across the hillside, we refuse to acknowledge the truth that there is a good shepherd that loves us and wants what is best for us. The bighorn sheep are a reminder that God continually cares for them, creating them uniquely to provide for them. If God provides for the needs of these sheep, how much more does He want to care for and provide for the people that He created and loves? Hopefully, that sounds familiar to something that Jesus stated regarding sparrows and lilies.

While we are wandering through life, trying to discover who we are, there is Good News for us. God wants to redeem and restore us as one of His. No matter how far we have gone from Him or what we have done, He has made a way for us to be forgiven and brought back into a right relationship with Him.

“He restores my soul.

He leads me in the paths of righteousness,

For His name’s sake.” Psalms 23:2-3

Because we have gone our own way, we are unrighteous, distant from what God has planned for us. When He restores us, He does it completely. God takes our unrighteousness and replaces it with His righteousness. This is the Biblical idea of justification. God gives us His righteousness, through Jesus.

“The LORD is our righteousness.” Jeremiah 23:6b

He takes the corrupted identity that we have developed and replaces it with the one that He designed specifically for us, based in His righteousness.

The LORD is Our Righteousness

Just because we have been restored, everything will not be easy and perfect. We struggle with our old identity. The habits and perspectives that we have developed throughout our life continue to tempt us to wander away from God and who He wants us to be.

God wants us to live into our redeemed identity that He has given to us. He will lead us into paths of righteousness and provide us with the desire and ability to follow Him on those paths. This is the process of transformation, rejecting the old ways of living or paths of unrighteousness, and choosing to follow and reflect God and His righteous way. By becoming who God made us to be and living according to His plan, we can experience the life He desires for us. It is only then that we display His power and glory for all observers to see, like the bighorn sheep.