Running Through Alpaca Poo

            This weekend my family and I went to help some very dear friends of ours at their alpaca/chicken farm.  I think it was a great learning experience for all, and of course we learned there wasn’t anything some good soap and water can’t clean off.  For my primarily raised in city kids, there was some great lessons here. 

            Toward the end of our visit my friends decided to get one of their alpacas away from the herd so my children could feel their fur.  It was a great idea.  My kids wanted to do this.  However no one realized how much of a challenge this would be for all of us.  I hadn’t realized before this how much alpaca’s are herd animals.  They don’t like to get separated from the others.   The others do not like one to get separated from them. I’m not sure if I will ever run with the bulls in Spain, but I can now easily say I have run with the alpaca’s in Ohio.  Separating one from the herd wasn’t easy.  We had our little dog with us and he flipped out.  At one point I had to take him out of the area.  Eventually in a time filled with alpaca poo, some alpaca spitting (which my youngest will tell with great gusto), the one that they wanted to show my children was cornered and they were able to feel her fur. 

            I thought about this today, and realized how much we as people need to be the same when members of our herd or pack get separated.  We need to think of people around us like our herd and if something is going amiss we need to come to their aid. 

1 Corinthians 12:26 (ESV)

²⁶ If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.

            In a world where the norm seems to be that we are all out for ourselves, I think we’ve forgotten the scripture above.  I realize that some can take advantage of others, but it seems to me that we can learn a lesson from the alpacas; that those around, the ones God has put around us, are our ‘herd’.  If one suffers we all do.  We need to stop being so self-focused and realize how we can help those around us.  Likewise, if one is honored instead of being so self-focused that perhaps we weren’t the ones honored, we need to learn to rejoice in the triumphs of those around us.  We need to stop thinking we are individuals on this earth, but realize we are a ‘team’, ‘herd’, or ‘pack’.  We need to start acting like one.  Churches are also to be like families for a reason.  We need to learn to be a family and stick together.  Amen.

            God has awesome plans for your life.  Get excited.