Over the weekend I went to the mall to do some last minute shopping. At the checkout at my favorite store, my favorite cashier asked if I’d heard about the lockdown. I hadn’t, so he explained. Apparently, a new athletic shoe went on sale that morning. Police had to be called to restore order after the crowd waiting outside bulldozed their way in, destroying an entry door in the process. Everyone, it seems, was determined to be first in line.
Naturally there was film at eleven. I watched, horrified as two small girls at another mall were nearly trampled in a similar onslaught. Most of the offenders were adults! Some fine example they set for the teens in the crowd.
This brings to mind a story I heard quite a few Christmases ago. It is the story of Gabriel, a shepherd boy, who lived in a land far away a long time ago. That is, before the first shopping mall was built.
Gabriel, like most young boys, had little patience for sheep tending. Instead, he preferred to spend his time daydreaming of roaming the earth, meeting new people and tasting exotic foods. He imagined that the rice and beans from his rucksack were fine meats and the water from his canteen was wine. Remember, this was long ago, when meat was very precious and therefore reserved for feasts and special occasions. Once he set his mind, he was transported even farther away, far beyond the grassy knoll where his sheep kicked and played.
One particularly sunny day, out of the house he went and down to the nearby meadow. It was time to walk the flock to a different pasture to feed. Gabriel skipped over the rocks as the land sloped gently toward a familiar valley. He pretended he was a bird, lifting his arms to the sky as he lept from rock to rock.
Suddenly from behind him, he heard a small cry of a lamb. He turned to see Snookie, the smallest of the lambs, wedged in between two of the rocks. Apparently, he had followed Gabriel’s footsteps over the rocks, instead of walking with the other sheep down the grassy hillside.
Gabriel stooped down and picked up the little animal. He lifted him onto his shoulders, and held Snookie’s front and back hooves to make sure he couldn’t jump down and injure himself further. Then Gabriel joined the flock for the remainder of their journey down to the valley.
When they finally stopped, Gabriel prepared their campsite for the night. Not once did he complain about the lamb’s weight as he chose a spot at the top of a gentle slope where he could watch the entire flock. Then and only then he set Snookie down on the ground and checked his legs. The little lamb appeared dazed, but did not cry out again in pain. Instead, he stood, shaky at first, and then regained his footing. As suddenly as he had fallen, Snookie ran off to join the flock, with a turn of the head that taught Gabriel, even at so young an age, that we never know who might be following in our footsteps.
REP On the Record 
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