“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.’” ~ Luke 2: 8-12
Read Luke 2: 1-21.
Imagine
that someone comes to you today and gives you this message:
“Dude,
your savior was just born. Time to rock
this world! This is some righteously
awesome news. Oh and BTW, if you wanna
go check him out, maybe hang and bring some gifts, he’s with his mom and pop up
in the South Bronx in some stranger’s garage.
You’ll know it’s the Messiah because he’ll be wrapped in dirty old
t-shirts. Yep, and he’ll be lying in an
old barbecue grill because nobody had a bassinet or even a car seat to put him
in. Just push your way past all the
animals to get a good view.”
[Imagine
what Child Protective Services would do if they got wind of this situation!]
How would you react? I’m not sure that I’d go running to
check out just another poor baby born in the squalor of the inner city. Even if the person telling me this was crazy
awesome-looking and had a zillion similarly impressive buddies singing in
agreement.
Would you?
I might run like hell in the opposite direction.
Yet, that’s what we see these shepherds do. They leave their sheep grazing and head right
back into the city to find this baby in a stable, in a freakin’ feeding trough
for the critters.
The faith of these folks has always been, for me,
the most astounding part of this wonderful story. They do not hesitate. Nor do they doubt that they are witnessing
something, someone, special. Someone who
will indeed rock their world. And who keeps
rocking it two millennia later
How impossibly wondrous that our God would come
along and walk with us, live with us, work with us, mourn with us, celebrate
with us.
How improbable that anyone could love us that
much, let alone the Mighty Creator of, well, everything!
But it’s true.
Pretty cool.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Reminder: if you have a prayer need, please click on the Share a
Prayer? tab
and send it my way. I will respond.
Have a wonderful
day!
No comments:
Post a Comment