Postcard from the Past: New Life

Ewes and lambs on pasture in the early spring bespeak a new cycle of life – a promise though winter comes again and again, it will always be followed by spring.

Folk in Biblical times, closer to the natural order of things than many people today, sensed the dignity of tending flocks so all might have food and clothing. Shepherds were revered men among them, and the sons of kings watched over their fathers’ beasts. 

It was not by accident the paschal lamb was the most worthy of sacrifices to God. It was a recognition of economic and spiritual value, and the lamb, as a symbol of purity, has survived the ages.

Today, we look upon cities, homes, machinery, etc. vastly different from those viewed by our forebears. But men and their stomachs are much the same, and the man who supplies food has a high place in society.

War has served to emphasize the essential worth of foodstuffs. There are people in starving Europe today who would part with the savings of a lifetime for one good meal for themselves and their children. 

Every American doughboy knows the difference food can make in the morale of a fighting man – how a man’s whole being can be concentrated upon the desire for food.

The man tending flocks today is one of the few fortunate enough to view the world as did those men who laid the first foundations of civilization by gathering and caring for flocks so the food supply of their tribes might be more stable. They find scarification in seeing animals growing fat on nature’s bounty, just as those who tended herds at the beginning of time did.

Those who live in the West are especially blest. They raise their eyes from their daily tasks to see high mountains accented by white snow or green trees, according to the season – to blue skies and bright sunshine, and natural beauty unmarred by man’s activities. Even as it was described in the Bible as a full life, so it is today.

Blessed words and exceptional photo from the 1944 annual edition of The Record Stockman.