The Good Shepherds
While shepherds watched
Their flocks by night,
All seated on the ground,
The Angels of the Lord came down
And glory shone around.
As we know by now, no human being is ever alone in earthly life or anywhere else, although it often feels that way. Others are constantly walking with us and although they are invisible to earthly eyes, in the spiritual background of our earthly existence they are always there, guiding and protecting us, even if the need arises, against ourselves. Playing the role of good shepherds in our lives, these beings were attached to us by the wisdom and love of the Highest to take care of and watch over us.
Constantly they are observing our spiritual progress and gently steering us through the inevitable ups and downs of earthly life. And whenever one of us veers too far to the right or left of our predestined and self-chosen pathway *, they nudge us back to where we ought to be. When the going gets too rough to cope on our own, it is our birthright to reach out for these hands and as soon as one of us calls for their assistance, they never fail to respond. The good shepherds are our siblings in the great family of life, who are constantly toiling on our behalves in the spiritual background of our earthly existence.
But even though our invisible friends and helpers are steering and sustaining each one of us, they can and will not do the work for anyone that is required to expand our consciousness. For a better understanding of God’s sacred wisdom and truth this is essential, but no-one can give it to us, we ourselves have to do the work. Each one of our spirit friends and helpers is pursuing their own individual evolutionary pathway, the same as we are, and through this all of us are growing and evolving together.
As we also know by now, light spiritually means knowledge and ignorance darkness. It’s just that each one of us perceives the light of God’s sacred wisdom and truth through a differently shaped and coloured window of perception. It consists of the soul impressions that were left behind by the manifold different experiences of all our lifetimes, up to this very moment. Independent of how anyone goes about the task of working with the different illuminating rays of the Highest, all have their origin in the Great White Light.
The work the spiritual development demands from each one of us is never quite the same as anyone else’s. Other people cannot do the work for us or we cannot do theirs for them. Nevertheless, every pathway is a good one that incessantly moves every one of us forwards and upwards on the evolutionary spiral of life. The tasks that present themselves to us at any given moment depend on the level of consciousness we have reached and the karmic debts that are still waiting to be redeemed by us, in keeping with the great evolutionary plan for our whole race and world.
Irrespective of what may still have to be faced by us and our world, our good shepherds will never fail to support us and whenever any one of us stumbles and falls and calls for their assistance, they draw very close to bring comfort and healing. The spirit world has always communicated with us through symbolisms and the shepherds of the Christmas story are a metaphor for our helpers in the world of light. In spite of the fact that they cannot be seen by earthly eyes, they are nonetheless there on the ‘other side’ of the veil of consciousness that separates our two worlds.
Many of them once walked the Earth, the same as we are presently doing. When they rose above and left behind the desires and concerns of earthly life, their spiritual vision opened. They look at us and our world with great compassion and love because they understand the struggles we are having with our earthly nature only too well. From where they are now they are doing their best to coax their human siblings on the Earth plane forwards and upwards on their pathway. They encourage us to follow their example and never give up, but to persevere with our efforts so that in the fullness of time our energies will be right for joining them on a higher level of life.
The Bible in St. Matthew 18:10-14 tells us: ‘Make sure you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you, the Angels always see the face of my Father in Heaven. The son of man has come to save what was lost. What do you think? If a man should have a hundred sheep and one of them is lost, would he not leave the ninety nine on the mountain and go in search of the one that is lost? And if he should find it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety nine that were not lost. Even so, your Father in Heaven does not want one of His little ones to be lost.’
What could this teaching be trying to tell us? The answer lies in its symbolisms. Let’s take a look at the little ones first. This does not necessarily mean young in age in physical life, i.e. children, but the young and inexperienced souls among God’s children of the Earth. They are our siblings in the family of humankind and the teaching advices us not to look down our noses on them or to sit in judgement * over them.
The mountain represents the highest level of life from which each one of us once descended on the road down the slopes that led us into experiencing life in physicality. At a later stage this is followed by an ascent up the steep face of the mountain that takes us back home into the conscious awareness of our true nature and oneness with God.
All God’s children of the Earth are sheep in the flock of the good shepherds. Whether we are as yet aware of this or not, at all times we can graze safely on the pastures of the spiritual mountain and that only because they were appointed by the Highest to look after each one of us every moment of our existence. This applies wherever we may find ourselves in this world or all others. It is in the nature of our race’s earthly education that for certain periods we have to stray from that which is good, right and beautiful. To become familiar with the desires of our lower animal nature, they first have to experienced. And the message of the above teaching is that if one of us gets lost along the way, our good shepherds will come to the rescue and see to it that we shall not be stuck on the lower and lowest levels of earthly life forever.
* Recommended Reading:
• ‘The Law Of Karma’
• ‘God’s Chosen People’
• ‘There Is No Judgement Day’
This is one of my ‘Songs Of Inspiration’.
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