Pink Sheep. Pink Chalk.

"While traveling on a road from Glasgow to Edinburgh, Scotland, I was enjoying the beautiful, pastoral countryside when a rather humorous sight captured my attention. 

 There, on a small hilltop, was a rather large flock
 of 
pink 
sheep.

I know that sheep owners mark their animals with dots of spray paint to identify them- but these sheep really stood out.  

The owner had fully covered every animal with pink coloring.  
Everyone knew who those sheep belonged to.

Scripture calls followers of Christ sheep, and they too have a unique identifying mark.

  What is the "pink coloring" in a Christ-follower's life?  
How can someone be identified as Jesus' own?

In the gospel of John, 
Jesus, 
the Good Shepherd, 
told us what that identifier is:

LOVE.

"Love one another; as I have loved you... 
By this all will know that you are My disciples, 
if you have love for one another" 
John 13: 34-35

In words and deeds, a believer should show love to all those around.  

"Beloved," 
John writes,
 "if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another" 
1 John 4:11  

A Christian's love for others 
should be as obvious 
as pink wool 
on a flock of Scottish sheep."

~Dave Branon~






Once I found pink chalk markings all over the walls in my home.
Yes my boys are not supposed to draw on the walls.
Yes sometimes they do it anyway when they notice no one is watching them.
Yes it only takes 2 minutes.

I find them.
I tell them not to do it again.
I have them help me wash it off the wall.
I love them.

I remind them that they should mark their lives,
just as they mark these walls,
by showing love to others.

All others.

Even the unloveable.

They are too young to fully grasp it now,
but I tell them anyway.

I'll never stop telling them.
I'll never stop loving them.
Those little graffiti artists.