When Christian missionaries first came...
Illustration
When Christian missionaries first came to the arctic regions of Alaska, they struggled to tell the Christian story to the Inuit people, the ones they called "Eskimos." It was no easy task, because life in Bible times was so different from anything in the Inuit experience. The story of the Good Shepherd posed particular problems, for none of the Inuit had ever seen a sheep. Finally, one of the missionaries learned of a strange and noble practice of the Inuit people that communicated this truth.
In times of severe famine, in the endless, dark days of arctic winter, it sometimes happened that a brave young man would go off across the ice, armed only with a pointed stick. He would walk until he encountered a polar bear, the deadliest animal of the arctic. The hunter would do whatever he could to provoke the bear to anger. Finally, the bear would rear up on its hind legs and raise its deadly claws to strike. At that moment, the hunter would set the blunt end of his pointed stick in the ground, and brace it against his foot. When the full weight of the bear fell down upon him, it also came down upon the stick. Pierced through the heart, the bear was sure to die -- but not before it had the opportunity to finish off the hunter.
The next day, the villagers would follow the hunter's tracks, until they came to the place where the two bodies lay -- the bear's and the one who had slain it, and in the frozen bear meat they would find enough food to survive the famine.
That is how the story of the good shepherd became, in the Inuit language, "the story of the good hunter."
In times of severe famine, in the endless, dark days of arctic winter, it sometimes happened that a brave young man would go off across the ice, armed only with a pointed stick. He would walk until he encountered a polar bear, the deadliest animal of the arctic. The hunter would do whatever he could to provoke the bear to anger. Finally, the bear would rear up on its hind legs and raise its deadly claws to strike. At that moment, the hunter would set the blunt end of his pointed stick in the ground, and brace it against his foot. When the full weight of the bear fell down upon him, it also came down upon the stick. Pierced through the heart, the bear was sure to die -- but not before it had the opportunity to finish off the hunter.
The next day, the villagers would follow the hunter's tracks, until they came to the place where the two bodies lay -- the bear's and the one who had slain it, and in the frozen bear meat they would find enough food to survive the famine.
That is how the story of the good shepherd became, in the Inuit language, "the story of the good hunter."
