Luke 2:8-12 – And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
Sometimes when you hear something over and over again, you become a little numb to it. It almost becomes white noise, background static to our daily lives.
That’s what can happen with the story of the Nativity. So familiar that we skip over the precious details that we’re given. Easy to do,especially when we’ve heard the same story all our lives.
This month I’m looking a little more closely at the greatest birth story ever told. I’m trying not to take any little nugget of it for granted. It’s the story of our King sending His Son, the Prince, to find and rescue us. How can we be anything less than fully intrigued by the God who crashed through time and space, leaving perfection and eternity, to display His magnificent love for us?
And how did He get our attention? As a baby! A BABY!!! A precious, helpless infant. The glory of God contained in the smallest human package. Placed, vulnerably, in the hands of mankind. What was God thinking? What was He doing?
This morning I was looking at the above passage pertaining to the shepherds. These are men who lived outside to guard their sheep. They gave up the comfort of their homes to protect these creatures. (Hmmmmmmmm….sounds like God’s shepherd heart for us…) The angel shows up, surrounded by the glory of God. It’s the dark of night and suddenly, the sky is illuminated by God’s glory and a heavenly being is talking to them! Of course they were terrified! The angel tells them not to worry, that this is a message of incredible joy and wonder. The Messiah has arrived! This is the answer to life that they have been waiting for for their entire existence!
But this Messiah was not coming as a presently reigning king. This Savior was not even arriving as a grown man. Their Messiah, their Savior, showed up as a baby. And not even a baby born to important or influential parents. An infant born to an unknown carpenter and his wife. No palace cradle for this child. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.
God got our attention in the most humble, non-descript way. At the time that the shepherds came to worship, this child didn’t even have a name yet. (He was named on day eight at His circumcision.) And yet they believed. The most unlikely situation, a king in a manger, but they had seen the glory of God at the angel’s announcement and they would never be the same again. Jesus had already changed lives before He could even do anything but nurse and sleep.
Luke 2:20 – The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.
The shepherds had to go back to their normal lives after literally seeing the face of God. They had to back to the mundane task of watching sheep after witnessing the most extraordinary event to hit this planet. But they went back and told everyone they saw about what had just happened to them. How God had shown up. To THEM!
So many sweet lessons for us here. God has revealed Himself to US! What will we do about it? Will we go back to our every day lives changed? Will we share what we have experienced with others? Will we live the remainder of our lives transformed and “glorifying and praising God for all the things we have heard and seen”?
