15 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.”
16 They hurried to the village and found Mary and Joseph. And there was the baby, lying in the manger.
Can you imagine being one of them, a shepherd....being visited by angels? Wondering why it was us shepherds that God sent an angel to announce his birth? Getting your eyes opened into the spirit realm for a moment in time? Going into town and finding things just as the angel had told you? Finding a familiarly smelly cave with a man, a woman, and a newborn baby swaddled in strips of cloth, laying in a feeding trough of hay, surrounded by animals? And finally, the “aha” moment as you stood looking at the infant "shepherd" and it dawned on you. The realization that set in that he was like you. Lowly. Common. Working class. Plain. Regular. Like you. He came down to your level. He chose to announce it to you. He invited you to him. He bypassed kings and queens, and came to you. You are invited to see the Savior. You are invited into his tangible presence. He is like you, but still somehow God. God, here, with me.
Of course he is a king, of course he is God, but he laid down his rights as king to come to you. He wanted to come here. To change your life. To make your life more full than you ever thought it could be. To become your Savior, but also to become your friend. To show you that you could talk straight to him without having a priest talk to him for you. To walk with you and cry with you through hard days, to laugh and rejoice with you on the good ones. To be available to you at any moment of the day or night. To be faithful to draw you close to him no matter what you had done. To take your place for the punishment of yours sins, even though he had no sin of his own to be punished. To spend forever with....
Do you realize what level he stooped to, just to come to us? Do you realize he WANTED to? He chose to? The author of life, creator of everything, creator of YOU, reduced to a tiny...naked...hungry...crying...shivering... helpless bundle, totally dependent upon a human for his existence, for his nourishment, for his warmth, for his safety and protection. All because he wanted to come rescue you.
Ask God today to show you the level of sacrifice it took for Him to become one of us. The irony of being born to a carpenter, who would teach him how to create and fashion wood with his hands (even though it was him that created the tree and who taught men to create), to play in the sawdust at his feet as a toddler, to build your first project together with your dad as a young boy, to stand alongside him as a teen helping him build, and then as a man to have your own hands and feet nailed into that wood...all because he became one of us.
17 After seeing him, the shepherds told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this child. 18 All who heard the shepherds’ story were astonished, 19 but Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often. 20 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! What they saw and experienced could not be contained! They had to share it! They were changed men! They took it back to their daily lives with them, “glorifying” God. Can we say the same? Can we say that what we have experienced by having Jesus come into our life cannot be contained to the point we have to talk about it? Can we say we take it with us everywhere we go, even into our workplace? Can we say it has made us a changed man or a changed woman forever? Does our very life bring honor and glory to God by the way we now live it?
All they saw that day was a baby. You and I have seen the whole picture - of his birth, his life, his ministry, his death, his burial, his resurrection, his ascension, the coming of the Holy Spirit. We have the books in the Bible to read about him, we have first hand accounts. We have it all. What do we do with it all is my question today?
I got a glimpse of what we do with it all, with the precious gift of Jesus we have been given. Just one trip to Kohl’s and Target hampered and grieved my spirit! Lines of people herded into roped off waiting lines like cattle, waiting for the “next available cashier”, people obviously tired and overspending, lights, tinsel, decorations, Christmas tree dinnerware, sales, sales, sales, dancing snowmen, penguins, and singing Santas, an old lady arguing in the aisle with a grandson because he couldn’t tell her what everybody wanted, a child tired of waiting in line, tired of being in a buggy. People scurrying everywhere to get something, anything, just so Aunt Hazel has a present under the tree. It has just never affected me like it did this time. It all seemed so foolish, like “chasing the wind”. Bowing to a god, a "spirit" of commercialism that has totally distracted us from the birth of our only hope. I feel ashamed of what we have done, of what it has all become. Of how ignored our guest is at his supposed celebration.
The only “birthday” celebration I’ve ever known where the “honoree” doesn’t get a gift, gets virtually ignored, and the guests go about lavishing on each other, but never on him. How odd and how selfish we humans are. Why are we not giving him anything?
But yet, knowing this would be, he still came. He knew we would do this. He knew mankind would totally reject him and find something else to worship. He knew he would be the last to get any recognition. He knew that materialism and commercialism would overtake us. He knew Santa would become the hero of the holiday and the Easter bunny the hero of the most sacred of his days. And he still came. He is still there, in the shadows, in the dark and dirty places, waiting for us. Because he thought we were worth it. And he is waiting for you.
What would it even look like this year to turn our hearts totally toward him? To give him a gift? Even the phrase “the true meaning of the season” has become cliche. What is it your parents say they want when you ask them? “Don’t get us anything, they say. Write me a card or something.” They want to know you. They want to know that you love them. Stuff is unimportant to them because they are your parents. Our Father is the same way. He just wants us. It’s all he’s ever wanted –us.
When you wrap the last of the stack of gifts, or when that last gift is opened Friday, sit among the paper and the bows and all the stuff you and your family have acquired, and ask yourself did you forget to give the most important present of all. Did you forget to give yourself to Christ? In the midst of all the giving mayhem, what did you truly give this year?
I love you all and I hope you truly sense what he has done for you. So much so, that you cannot contain it!
Teresa
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