Estéfana's story
“I was a shepherd girl. Only 11 was I. My father sent me out into the high mountains to care for our sheep. When it was cold and rainy, I shivered. I liked to draw one of the lambs close to me; in my arms it snuggled. It was warm in the cold.
“I loved my sheep. To each one I gave a name. Though far off in the meadow or on the slopes of the mountains,
they heard my voice. They answered me. They knew their names.
“I felt very small when I looked at the mountains, when I looked at the sky. Who was I? I was only a ‘little piece
of a person’. I wasn’t much. I was only a shepherd girl.
“I heard my father tell of a new story. He heard it in the town on market day. A young man spoke our
language. He said there was only one true God. One great God who made the heavens. He wasn’t
like all the frightening gods and images. He didn’t eat candles or rose petals. One great God, he said, who loved
the people on this earth."Why hadn't she known this before?"
“The one true God loved little people like me; just a little piece of a person, I was. Like a little lamb, I was. He sent his son to be a shepherd. He sent his son to take care of people, to take care of people like sheep. The Good Shepherd, he was called. He ran after the sheep. He called their names. He fought the mountain lion. He sent away the fox. He carried the sheep. He covered the lamb with his body. Calling their names, he came.
“I thought about that new story. I looked up at the sky. I gazed at the mountains. Would the Good
Shepherd call my name? Would he carry me? Would he cover me? Me, just a little piece of a person.
Me, a little shepherd girl.
“The young man who spoke our language, this young man read out of a book. He read in our
language. He read about the son of the one true God, the son who was sent to be the Good Shepherd.
I heard them again, those words I listened to. The Good Shepherd called my name. Under the white sun he
called. I bleated. I cried. He lifted me up to his bosom, he snuggled me close to his heart.
“I was only a little piece of a person. I was only a shepherd girl. The Good Shepherd, the son of the one true
God called my name. I heard him long ago; I follow him now. I was a shepherd girl, now I am a lamb.
No longer a little piece of a person, now a lamb.”
