Today’s Word of the Day from my iPad's Dictionary app is “caprine,” an adjective of or pertaining to goats.
This self-described wordsmith’s first thought is that "caprine" must be the root word for "capricious." Wrong. “Caprine's" derivative is Latin and came along around 1600, several years after the French derivative of "capricious." Further dictionary use tells me “capricious” means "subject to or led by or indicative of a sudden odd notion or unpredictable change; erratic, " or "obsolete, fanciful." It comes from the music term capriciosso which means "fantastic".
Back to Word of the Day, my next thought turns spiritual: "Do you want to be a sheep or a goat?"
All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Matthew 25:32-33 NKJV
A quick internet search on goat behavior leads me to a very lengthy discourse on Wikipedia. I know you can’t wait to read it. ;O)
Goats are extremely curious and intelligent. They are also very coordinated and widely known for their ability to climb and hold their balance in the most precarious places. This makes them the only ruminant able to climb trees, although the tree generally has to be on somewhat of an angle. Due to their agility and inquisitiveness, they are notorious for escaping their pens by testing fences and enclosures, either intentionally or simply because they are handy to climb on. If any of the fencing can be spread, pushed over or down, or otherwise be overcome, the goats will almost inevitably escape. Due to their high intelligence, once a goat has discovered a weakness in the fence, it will exploit it repeatedly, and other goats will observe and quickly learn the same method.
So, goats are constantly testing the limits, crossing the boundary lines simply because they can and want to. My dog Belle is an extremely intelligent Border Collie-Labrador mix, and she makes hobby of finding ways to escape our yard just for the sport of it. She climbs, digs, squeezes, jumps to break free for an adventure. As a follower of Jesus, when I "break free" from God's fence of guidance provided in His Word by stumbling or jumping into sinful behavior, I make sport of Jesus' suffering on the cross to pay penalty for my transgressions. This kind of erratic behavior in a Christian would seem more characteristic of a goat than a sheep.
More about goats:
Goats have an intensely inquisitive and intelligent nature; they will explore anything new or unfamiliar in their surroundings. They do so primarily with their prehensile upper lip and tongue. This is why they investigate items such as buttons, camera cases or clothing (and many other things besides) by nibbling at them, occasionally even eating them.
When my children were babies their curiosity was a cue to their untapped intelligence. Curiosity's strength became my friend “Gina’s” weakness when her inquisitiveness drew her into the dangerous realm of the occult. Her curiousity gave way to behavior which eventually caused her to lose her job, her reputation, and finally her child. “Gina” turned away from God because she could not recognize His voice. John 10:4 says "his sheep follow him because they know his voice." Verse five goes on to say that His sheep won't follow a stranger but will only follow His voice. A spiritual goat, such as "Gina," searches for and follows after spiritual ideas that are novel and fit into her own notion of who God is and/or how the universe operates. Proverbs 14:12 warns us, “There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.”
Back to Wikipedia:
When handled as a group, goats tend to display less clumping behavior than sheep, and when grazing undisturbed, tend to spread across the field or range, rather than feed side-by-side as do sheep. When nursing young, goats will leave their kids separated ("lying out") rather than clumped as do sheep.
Every year a the Fort Worth Stock Show Rodeo groups of kids are given the opportunity to earn scholarships by trying to rope calves. It's sort of like herding cats; those calves spread out in all directions. But in another segment of the rodeo when a little border collie goes out to round up sheep, the sheep stay together as a flock. While I do not want to feel like I have to “follow the crowd,” per se, I also don’t want to have to go it alone. I cannot tell you the number of people I’ve talked to over the years who insist they do not need to go to church to be a Christian. They rant about how they worship God in their own homes in front of their TV’s and don’t have to be with all those hypocrites. This is sad because fellowship with God’s people keeps us encouraged and keeps us from becoming ensnared in sin.
And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left. ~~~~Hebrews 10:24-26
So maybe a capricious spiritual seeker really is caprine-like after all, subject to their own stubborn curiosity and independence to the point of detriment. The more I read about goats, the more I want to be a sheep.
