Later this week, my husband and I will attend candlelight worship on Christmas Eve. This service has been part of our thirty years married. The combination of carols, familiar Scripture readings, and sharing this time together with other believers is the perfect prelude to our family celebration on Christmas Day. Add our first grandchild and another on the way and this Christmas is sure to be perfect!
I don’t have to imagine a baby in a manger. This Christmas, we have our very own! I’m always eager to tell anyone who will listen about my grand-babies! It’s so easy to talk about a baby. Everything they do is precious and their firsts are happening all the time. You don’t even need to ask. I will volunteer information even in passing. I’m a new grandparent and I want everyone to know. My babies are precious but only One baby changed the world forever.
“That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep.
Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them.
They were terrified, but the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people.
The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!
And you will recognize him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.”
Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God and saying, “Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.”
When the angels had returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, “Let’s go to Bethlehem! Let’s see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.
They hurried to the village and found Mary and Joseph. And there was the baby, lying in the manger.
After seeing him, the shepherds told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this child.
All who heard the shepherds’ story were astonished…
The shepherds went back to their flocks, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. It was just as the angel had told them.”
Luke 2:8-18, 20 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/luk.2.8-20.NLT
After seeing Jesus, the shepherds told everyone what had happened to them and what the angel had said to them about this child, and all who heard the shepherds’ story were astonished. The shepherds simply repeated what they’d seen and heard and those who knew history and the prophets surely recognized Messiah in their words.
They returned to their fields, to their flocks, but can you imagine the clamor along the way? I don’t imagine they slept at all that night! I’m picturing the crowds exiting the stadium after our high school team defeated the local rival. The play by play repeated for the tenth time is no less awe-inspiring. As I’m turning off the bedside lights to climb in bed, my husband is still reciting the winning play aloud. It’ll be the talk of the town for days!
The shepherds went on their way, and as they went, they acted as faithful eyewitnesses. Most likely, nothing this spectacular would ever happen to them again during their lifetimes. Did it become their anthem, their claim to fame? Did the story of that one night define them, or did they happen to hear Jesus teach later in their lives?
I wonder if any of them ate fish and bread when Jesus fed five thousand. Maybe one of the youngest of their number was kin to Lazarus or the boy Jesus gave back to his mother alive after stopping his funeral procession. Did any of them find themselves passing Calvary when the earth quaked and the sky went dark at midday? Whose long dead mother walked out of the grave when Jesus gave up His Spirit? None of them would have seen the curtain rip from top to bottom in the most holy place, but just maybe one or two heard firsthand from a priest or Levite while delivering a sacrificial lamb.
Their words on that first Christmas Day weren’t calculated or worried over. Not one of them wondered who they might offend. They repeated the events of that night again and again shamelessly and all who heard their story were astonished!
Jesus told His first followers before He ascended again to heaven, “You will stand trial before governors and kings because you are my followers. But this will be your opportunity to tell the rulers and other unbelievers about me.
When you are arrested, don’t worry about how to respond or what to say.
God will give you the right words at the right time. For it is not you who will be speaking—it will be the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.”
Matthew 10:18-20 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/mat.10.18-20.NLT
Solomon noted times and seasons for many things including “a time to be quiet and a time to speak.”
Ecclesiastes 3:7b NLT
https://www.bible.com/116/ecc.3.7.nlt
This is our time to speak! We are Christmas People! Our Savior is victorious! Go Tell It On The Mountain- Jesus Christ is born.
“We didn’t see it coming,
the story of redemption.
What started in a manger ended in an empty grave.
Light of the World,
the glory of heaven who broke through the darkness.
All hail the king!”
~HOPE HAS A NAME-IMMANUEL by Passion~
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