The sheep and the goats, but mostly the goats

Our family loves festivals. This past Saturday, we went to one that had a small petting zoo. In one pen were seven or eight goats and one sheep. For no apparent reason, the goats were almost constantly head-butting each other. They'd headbutt each other (and the poor sheep) in the head, in the side, in the rump, anywhere. For apparently no reason. They seemed to like headbutting others, but didn't seem to enjoy being headbutted themselves. But they just kept on doing it, over and over, and showed no signs of letting up when we left.

I imagine that might be how God looks at many of the things we do to each other. That God sees the ways and the reasons we hurt other people and knows it is nothing but a pointless, meaningless headbutt. And we keep doing it, over and over. We usually think our reasons matter, that they are justified somehow, someway. I expect that God, they are pointless headbutts, and we look like dumb goats.

I admit it: I'm a goat. The good news is that in Jesus Christ, God became a goat, and through Jesus God forgives us for all those headbutts we give others, and forgives others for the headbutts they give us. But that doesn't take away all the headaches my pointless headbutts have caused. So I'm going to think about that the next time I'm about to headbutt someone, and with God's help I'll be able to keep my head to myself.