For Unto Us
I sit on the highest hill in the main pasture as the sun goes down sending shards of brilliant multifaceted light across the night sky. My sheep surround me, eyes closed, chewing contentedly without a care in the world.
I would have usually led them back to their barn for the night by now, if they haven’t already led themselves. But tonight is different, warmer, the sunset more radiant than normal — the night sky brighter so I linger a little while longer.
The Christmas story plays through my head and heart like an unchained melody, lingering. Lingering. The familiar story never changes, of course, but its meaning to me has over the years.
As a young child I focused on the animals because that’s what I already had an affinity for. When I got a little older, I felt sorry for Mary and Joseph because they’d traveled so far for so long only to have no place to rest or sleep at the end of their long journey. I also felt sorry for the baby Jesus, not having a soft bed with warm blankets. Hay didn’t seem particularly soft or warm to me. Neither did a manger.
The Shepherds, though a critical part in the Christmas story were not a true focal point of the story for me until much later. Even though the angel appeared to them first. They were just background characters in the story. Right? After all, they were only Shepherds doing what Shepherds do. How important could they be?
We don’t know who the Shepherds were by name, nor how many there were. But we do know this: The angel of the Lord came to the Shepherds first to announce Christ’s miraculous birth. They saw and heard the angels praising and proclaiming the Christ child had arrived, and even though they were afraid (I’m pretty sure I would have been too) they believed a truly most unbelievable story. Without hesitation they went to see Him immediately and were the first to see the newborn King, long before the wise men did.
Some historians believe Shepherds were low in their society’s pecking order at the time of Christ’s birth which says volumes to why Christ had come in the first place. He could have easily been born in plain view of kings and others much higher in society, with finery and royal honors bestowed upon Him and his parents. Yet, His “finery” was swaddling clothes. His warm soft bedding, hay. His bed, a crude well-used animal’s food trough. His palace was a stable with animals bedded down in it. His parents, certainly not royalty barely able to scratch out a meager living.
In other words, His lowly birth shows us that He came for everyone, that all are welcome in His flock. The perfect Lamb of God, The Good Shepherd. Who came to live among us, to cruelly and sacrificially die — to take away the sins of the world. His life and death were for all people. His flock accessible to us all if we humbly acknowledge Him as our Lord and Savior.
I stand up and call my sheep to follow me to their barn as the last brilliant rays of sunlight slip silently over the hill. I think once more of those long-ago Shepherds and marvel at their willingness to follow the directions of an unexpected angel. Even in their fear they followed. Their faith automatically moving them ever forward to see the newborn King, their Savior. Though it didn’t make sense to them they went.
And so must we. To seek Him and once found, to honor Him. To love and adore Him. To follow Him all the days of our lives. Even in those times when it doesn’t make sense.
Jackie Deems copyright 2023
8 In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; 11 for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.12 This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Luke 2:8:12
