Ezekiel 34:21-22 provides a particularly poignant image of God the shepherd’s care for the “least of these”:
Because you pushed with flank and shoulder, and butted at all the weak animals with your horns until you scattered them far and wide, I will save my flock, and they shall no longer be ravaged.
Reading these verses reminds me of a day several years ago, when our family visited a local petting zoo in Atlanta.