This sheep
is part of Fontanini’s 50 inch scale Masterpiece Collection. The sheep is made of a marble based resin. This is a wonderful addition to your church or institution holiday outdoor decoration.
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The Sheep:
These gentle, loving creatures depend totally on their shepherd masters. So tender is their relationship that God’s love for man is said to be like a shepherd’s for his flock.
The raising of sheep was a critical part of the Holy Land’s social and agricultural system centuries ago. Sheep provided clothing, food, even milk…and were part of the intricate sacrificial system that governed religious life at the time of Christ’s birth.
These gentle creatures provided more than sustenance. So close was the relationship between man and sheep, it was said that when God’s love of man was visualized it was most often depicted as a shepherd with his animals. As further proof of this bond, scholars have found over 500 references to sheep in the New Testament!
The seasons of the sheep were predictable and cyclical in nature. Spring symbolically started the year, for in March and April, ewes, having been bred five months before, lambed. The newborns were usually given names at birth and learned to respond to those names in a very short amount of time.
About a month after lambing, adult sheep were shorn in the midst of celebratory feasting and dancing. After shearing, flocks were led to pools where they were dipped in water twice and immediately after the groups emerged from the water, the spring “harvest” festival began.
By autumn, the fields were stripped bare and sheep often relied upon thorns as a food source. Careful to avoid grain fields where crops were nearing harvest, shepherds led their ewes, rams and lambs about the countryside in anticipation of the coming winter when the Judean hills steamed with cold rain.
Although sheep have been depicted through the ages as being meek or bashful, a more apt description might be gentle and loving… vulnerable and dependent upon their shepherd masters. Shepherds’ tales, passed down through time, describe the tender and affectionate nature of these loving animals with historical accuracy.
Maybe it was because shepherds spent many solitary hours in the fields with their flocks that these particular animals bonded so closely to man… or perhaps God simply gave sheep a special gift of understanding that still exists between the two today.
Select this link to view our Christmas nativity scene.
Select this link to view our Christmas Nativity Scenes and Nativity Sets.
