Shepherds: The Lower Class

SHEPHERDS: THE LOWER CLASS

For many years I drove truck, hauling produce from California to Canada. I would often cut across the back roads of Idaho instead of staying on the busy interstate. The area I would travel trough on the back roads would take me through deserts and volcanoes, but it would also take me through prime sheep-grazing mountains.

Now you may think that these sheep were in a fenced area; they were not. These sheep still were looked after by shepherds. These shepherds often had an old pickup truck with a home-made camper. They live with the sheep--they smell like the sheep.

One day I noticed one of these shepherds in a store I stopped at. He looked un-bathed, un-kept and by the way others were avoiding him, I could tell his smell was a little on the ripe side. These Idaho shepherds are considered a lower class in their society.

So too, the shepherds in the time of the birth of Christ were not considered in the upper class.