SHEPHERD'S GATE IS A RETAIL BUSINESS specializing in Christian products.  It also has antiques, specialty finds, and J. L. Divine Designs wood products made with beautiful Northern Michigan wood. Shepherd's Gate is connected to SHEPHERDSGATEMISSIONS.COM a non-profit to help people.

Shepherd's Gate has many products such as Roman, Enesco, and many companies including Julie's own J.L. Divine Design's. The products are made from Northern white Cedar.

Northern White Cedar (thuja occidentalis) is also called eastern white cedar, or arborvitae, and was chosen to make these products. This woods character represents how GOD cares for us.  Each product is cut and shaped by hand therefore none are the same. 

All cedar is native to the old world from the Mediterranean to the Himalayas. The cedars of Lebanon (C. libani) were used in the building of the Temple in Jerusalem and King Solomon’s House (1 Kings 5, 6, 7). King Hiram of Tyre, Lebanon, who provided the cedar (1000 B.C.). Native Americans of the Great Lakes region in the United States highly valued this wood. They used the wood for canoe ribs & slats & extracted the oil to make chest decongestants. Today it is used in pails, tubs, ties, boat building, wooden ware, and paper.

The heart wood within the tree itself and the oil contains natural preservatives that resist insects and decay. It is the lightest of any commercial wood in the United States. It grows both in pure and mixed stands, swamps and the uplands. It sends out shoots from any part of a branch or if moisture conditions are right. The insulating factories among the highest of U.S. woods. The tree provides shelter and browse in the winter deer yards. Cedar leaf oil is made from the boughs by steam distillation. Many pharmaceutical products are made because of its therapeutic properties as well as perfume, toiletries, cosmetics, soaps and detergents. The Egyptians also used the oil in the mummification process for burial.  The Northern White Cedar wood (Latin name arborvitae) is also known as the "Tree of GOD or "Tree of Life" (Rev. 22:2, 14).