Advent December 11th
The CSLI devotional today was about how the announcement of Jesus’ birth was received by shepherds. And it is interesting. The joyful tidings and multitude of angels could have been sent anywhere. It wasn’t as if that field was God’s only option. Shepherds were intentionally given the biggest breaking news in history.
It was probably so dark out there. There were surely all kinds of dangerous predators. Imagine that first instance that the angel appeared. What would the shepherds think? Don’t you love it that even though they had to be terrified, when the angels went away, they were like, “Oh we’re going over there. We are seeing Him tonight!”
In Making Room I wrote about how Jesus is the personification of truth and grace. I wonder what the Shepherds thought when they saw Him. They knew they were going to see a Baby lying in a manger. They knew that He was the promised Savior. Maybe it was hard to reconcile. The long-awaited Savior in a manger? But many times the life of faith requires us to act and not first demand full understanding. The Shepherds went with “haste” to see the Savior. Their inability to fully understand did not keep them away.
I’m praying tonight for my friends who are tripped up by a need to fully understand. I’m praying that in choosing to trust that they will more fully understand. I think it’s how it worked for the shepherds in Luke 2 and how it always works.
When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another “Let us go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us. And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger.”
Digging Deeper:
Where are you most apt to demand full understanding? Do you think you will achieve such understanding without faith?