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Of Sheep and Tender Shoots

First Sunday of Advent

“Therefore, keep alert—for you do not know when the master of the house is coming, whether in the evening, at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning…” Mark 13:35

On a crisp afternoon in late December my family lounged in the grass at our friends’ homestead in Winterville, Georgia. The kids swung on rope swings and ran through what was left of the garden. My husband and I sat talking with Hank, whose wife Rita slipped in and out of the conversation, walking out to the shed to check on her laboring sheep. I talked and enjoyed our families’ company, but my attention had shifted, and I felt the quiet, dispassionate alertness that only ever comes over me at work. I am a midwife, and I was watching my friend as she watched her sheep’s first birth. READ MORE