The introductory chapter brings a profound awareness of insignificance, of the “vaporous� nature of our lives. (James 4:14) The simple exclamation, ‘We are nothing’ is very biblical. The shepherd’s life measured in miles, spent under stars and a constant struggle with the elements is far from my suburbia. Its cadence is ancient- timeless - a call back to a reality more substantial than mine. Phrases are illuminated: “dust to dust,� “who is man that you take note of him,� “I will make your descendants outnumber the stars� – the significance of GOD’s notice of a person in the midst of a vast wilderness. It is not the stuff of a cute flannel graph or watercolor painting. This is not a quaint world – it is a holy furnace where the chosen and called are shaped into shepherds after His heart.