Welcome home
After reading an excerpt from the referenced book by Alfred Edersheim, it brought home to rest in my own heart what I haven’t been able to pin point pertaining to where I am at this point in life.
I grew up a military brat- so the nomad is in my blood and until I married, I never stopped moving around- I know my mom was the same- but where ever we moved, our house or where she was – always was home- it was the feel, the smells, the decor, the plants but mainly the love. Where our fondest memories are, lay the thoughts of home –
When Joseph and Mary left to register w the census – I wonder, did they feel the sense of home or homelessness or were they at peace just to be together? To fulfill that which was foretold they traveled far to find a home in which they weren’t sure about. Out of trust and love Mary follows her husband, their fate and the baby’s fate is truly given over to faith.
Which brings me to what has been on my heart of late; even while outcast or a stranger in a place- how are you ever truly at home?
Then Angel came to the shepherds who are set apart from everyone else- and made them know they were special- showed them the way-
As a farmer, I know the spiritual struggle and balancing of “keeping the Lords day sacred”– I can imagine how others looked at them who had to work to keep the special sheep up to par-
I’ve learned to overdo the day before so that minimal is done on the Sabbath- and what can’t be avoided is prayed over and done to His Glory with thanks- but for an Angel to appear before them- in the middle of their watch to show them the way, this told them the way was the way home for them- even though they were outcast- they now have a home –
I think the saying “you can’t go home again” falls just short of the truth really. If we stop looking hard enough and look within we’ll see home never really left US
And though Joseph was a carpenter, and Mary was a child of God bearing the Son of God and man. Together they gave our Father a home. He in turn gave us a home in Him-
So I say to all, whose nests are empty , who have roamed to and fro searching, who are unsure of where their journey has taken them, and who just can’t make out their surroundings or are surrounded by everything alien – stop for a moment and look , listen- the signs say it all where ever we are. Welcome Home-
~~~
Reference- Alfred Edersheim
From “The Life and Times of Jesus the Masiah”
Book II chapter 6 line 20-23states:
A passage in the Mishnah20 leads to the conclusion, that the flocks, which pastured there, were destined for Temple-sacrifices,21 and, accordingly, that the shepherds, who watched over them, were not ordinary shepherds. (**21. In fact the Mishnah (Baba K. vii. 7) expressly forbids the keeping of flocks throughout the land of Israel, except in the wilderness – and the only flocks otherwise kept, would be those for the Temple-services (Baba K. 80 a)
The latter were under the ban of Rabbinism,22 on account of their necessary isolation from religious ordinances, and their manner of life, which rendered strict legal observance unlikely, if not absolutely impossible. The same Mishnic passage also leads us to infer, that these flocks lay out all the year round, since they are spoken of as in the fields thirty days before the Passover – that is, in the month of February, when in Palestine the average rainfall is nearly greatest.23 Thus, Jewish tradition in some dim manner apprehended the first revelation of the Messiah from that Migdal Eder, where shepherds watched the Temple-flocks all the year round. Of the deep symbolic significance of such a coincidence, it is needless to speak.
Bio
I have a small farm with my husband in NE Fla., where we grow lavender as well as an array of four legged and feathered babies- I am a writer and photographer – and I have a passion for cooking. As an artist my outdoor kitchen is my favourite pallet in which to create. Though it’s not much by worldly standards, I know, through it all, I have been truly blessed by our Father.
1 comment
very nice!