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Maude's Pages
Advent 2002
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I don’t know about you, but we sheep are getting all excited about the special day Our Shepherd in Heaven came to live with us here! We won’t sleep at all, we’re so excited! We stay up the whole night and watch for the angels...
My first year as a lamb, I didn’t understand why everyone was so excited, but I did work on getting my nicest snow jewels ready just in case. Then at midnight I heard them! The angels singing! I will never forget that first time for the rest of my life!
Sometimes I hear people –- even our shepherd -- saying that we sheep are stupid. But I think the problem with most of you humans is that you haven’t heard the angels singing! That has to be the reason you spend most of your lives paying attention to everything EXCEPT Our Shepherd in Heaven and His wonderful Kingdom! We sheep know we don’t need to worry about food and shelter – and He has certainly given us plenty of clothes —so we just enjoy life as it comes. And you call us stupid?
Did you notice my new photo up on top? There are some nice people who have discovered that Central New York State exists and has a lot of wonderful things (like myself).
They have a whole magazine on the Catskills now and a cap that says "Catskill Region" on the front and Catskillregiontoday.com on the back and because I'm so famous they wanted me to be the model! My shepherd said she wants to take more pictures with just me in the barn, because it was hard for me to concentrate with everyone else around -- my friend Robin kept trying to eat my hat!
My shepherd got excited about taking pictures that day, so all the sisters came out and they decided to do a Christmas portrait with this year's doeling crop. My shepherd says some people might be interested in them as well as me, so I'll tell you who they are: The doelings from left to right are Darling, Pearlina, Minnie, Mabel, Myrtle, Millie and Maizie. The sisters are Mother Seraphima (she takes care of Bove and Roo, our guardians), Sister Macrina (she's my shepherd), Sister Eugenia (she's my shepherd's assistant) Sister Lydia (she's doing a sketch portrait of me), Martha Jane (she's the newest one) and Mother Raphaela (she's especially in charge of the goats and is also the sisters' shepherd).
The doelings are all our own, home-grown Zoar-farms goats except for Pearlina who came all the way from Canada -- I told you about her last time. Here's another picture of just her in case Emily is looking: My shepherd's shepherd says Darling, Pearlina and Minnie are going to be stars when they grow up. I don't think I really have to worry that they will be competition for me, though, since everyone knows sheep are so much nicer than goats!
I'm already talking to my new baby. We're not sure when it's going to be born yet -- and I'm hoping maybe it will be twins! I like to think that I'm a mother just like the Mother of Our Shepherd in Heaven! I thought she had her baby in a barn just like ours, but my shepherd's shepherd who has been to the very place where He came to live with us, says all the barns over there were caves! I'm not sure I'd want to live in a cave, but she says over there the caves are very nice -- drier than they would be here, warm in winter and cool in summer. So I guess it was OK. But I think He could have chosen a nicer spot!
When I heard she was going back over to that Holy Land, I asked if she couldn't get some pictures more close up of the sheep that live there.
She said the shepherd stays with his sheep and leads them along to find something to eat. I think I would starve there! I don't see anything there I like! There's one last thing I want to tell you. When I was born and my sister and I were raised in the big barn where the sisters live because we lost our mother, there was a big cat there named Fred who watched over us carefully. He'd been there practically forever, he told us, and it was his job to watch everything and keep us safe. Everyone loved him, and he was almost as famous here as I am!
He would patrol, and if something was wrong, he would let Teddy know, so Teddy could raise the alarm! Well, we lost Teddy last year, and just now we lost Fred! We know he and Teddy are having a good time being back together again, and sometimes I can tell they are still watching out for us -- it's like for us, there's a thick wall between us and Our Shepherd in Heaven's Kingdom. My shepherd says there are mirrors like that -- on one side no one can see through; they just see themselves, but the people on the other side can see everything! Well, I think every once in awhile, we get to see through from our side, too, and that's how we know everyone who has gone there is always watching us and praying for us! And the angels can fly right through that wall! Aren't you glad Christmas is coming when we remember that we all are really already living in Our Shepherd in Heaven's Kingdom? I am!
Christ is Born! Glorify Him!
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