An Old Christmas Shepherd and a String of Sunset Planets...

Photo taken by me of the inside of a very old box that is in my possession.

One of my favorite books that I read with the kiddos in my classes was Mountain Born by Elizabeth Yates, in which Benj, the old shephard, imparted to the boy so many of life's lessons.  Lying on their backs watching over the sheep on steep hillsides at night with thousands of twinkling stars in the heavens above were times the boy wouldn't be forgetting as old Benj muttered his thoughts aloud.  "A man must have a care to what he puts in his mind, for when he's alone on a hillside and draws it out he'll want treasures to be his company, not regrets."   And, every day ended with one simple prayer, "Thank you Lord for another day."  

I created this cloth and clay figure intending it should be a Santa figure, but he's no Santa Claus.  He's a shepherd, abiding his flock.  Can't you see it too?  

"And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night."  Luke 2:8

Just last night, I began reading Thomas Hardy's Far From The Madding Crowd, 1874.  After the first page, I knew I was hooked on this one.  (The 2015 movie is a favorite of mine, too.)  Here it was again, the story of a shepherd watching his flocks by night.  

"Suddenly an unexpected series of sounds began to be heard in this place up against the sky.  They had a clearness which was to be found nowhere in the wind, and a sequence which was to be found nowhere in nature.  They were the notes of Farmer Oak's flute...

...Being a man not without a frequent consciousness that there was some charm in this life he led, he stood still after looking at the sky as a useful instrument, and regarded it in an appreciative spirit, as a work of art superlatively beautiful.  For a moment he seemed impressed with the speaking loneliness of the scene, or rather with the complete abstraction from all its compass of the sights and sounds of man.  Human shapes, interferences, troubles, and joys were all as if they were not, and there seemed to be on the shaded hemisphere of the globe no sentient being save himself, he could fancy them all gone round to the sunny side."  

You may be remembering at this time last year when many of us were watching the Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn forming what became popularly known as the 2020 Christmas Star.  Many believe that it was such a conjunction of planets that shepherds followed on the night of Christ's birth ~ the first Christmas Star.  

For those of you who enjoy watching the sky, there's a lot going on out there this evening and through the 9th.  The Moon, Jupiter, Saturn, and Venus (which is very bright now) will be lining up just after sunset for a spectacular view.   Undoubtedly, many shepherds will be watching.