Luke 2:9-14 NKJV
Luke 2:15-20
Colossians 3:15 NKJV
BE Grateful
Imagine you are a shepherd watching the sheep in the pasture at night.
You really didn’t want to sit with the sheep all night, but there were predators that had been stalking the flock and it was your turn to stay up. Two others were watching the flock as well. You had to scatter around the them so the three of you could watch from every side.
After you got out into the field and you got settled in, you started looking at the stars. It was a perfect night to spend outside. It was a peaceful night.
We kept tabs on each other throughout the night and ever so often we would yell to make sure everything was okay.
Then suddenly I saw…
“An angel of the Lord” standing before us.
“The glory of the Lord shone around” us and we were very afraid.
“The angel said” to us, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” (Luke 2:9-14).
And then the Angel was gone.
The sky was dark again.
We ran to each other and asked what the others saw. Each of us repeated the words we heard. What was strange is that what we remembered was almost identical. It seemed like it couldn’t be real, but if it wasn’t real them how could all of us repeat the same words?
How could the three of us describe the Angel?
We even talked about how we felt when the Angel appeared and what it was like when the Angel spoke.
All of us said we wanted that moment to last forever.
I mean the sky was so bright in that moment the beauty of the Angel and the light were the most marvelous thing I’d ever seen! Then after the Angel was gone we all felt like there was wave of excitement mingled with disappointment that the light had dissipated.
For a moment we were so focused on the light and the Angel that we forgot about the sheep. Once everything calmed down, we remembered the flock and we started counting them. We were really glad they were all accounted for and they were alright.
As soon as others came to watch the sheep we decided instead of going home we would go to Bethlehem to see what had happened. We believed the Angel and we knew something wonderful happened that night.
When we got to Bethlehem we saw a manger that seemed to have a glow around it. That reminded us of the glow we saw from the Angel. We peeked inside and we saw a man and a woman looking over a baby that was lying in a box. It wasn’t a special box…it was like something they used to feed the donkeys.
At the same time, even though the box was plain worn wood, it even had a glow about it. The glow seemed to come from the straw and the baby. We had seen a newborn baby before but we’d never seen a baby like this. As he slept everything was so calm and peaceful. It was the same feeling we had when the Angel appeared, except stronger.
It seems strange but that’s what it felt like.
When we saw the child laying in the box somehow we knew this WAS what the Angel wanted us to see. The baby was not like any other baby. We looked at him and we loved him.
When we left there others asked us where we had been. We tried to explain the bright light and going to see the baby in the manger but our description didn’t really do justice to what we saw. We just weren’t able to come up with the right words to describe the beauty, the love, and peace we experienced that night.
Later we saw the woman again who had been in the manger that night. She was holding the baby and we understand that she told others that she treasured the whole experience and she was grateful to God for the child. It seemed like she was thinking as she spoke. She had moments of silence as she looked at the baby they had named Jesus.
We went back home and as we walked we, too had moments of silence. It was a day we would never forget, the day the Angel appeared to us in the field.
We would never forget the beauty and the peace we felt.
As we remembered, we praised God for everything we saw and experienced.
Mostly we were grateful that we saw the baby that night. There was just something very different and very special about that child.
Let’s see…what did they name him?
Oh yea, Jesus.
They called him Jesus.
As the years passed we continued to remember the peace we felt that night. It left us with a deep sense of peace in our hearts.
Today’s Spiritual Practice is: Peace
Colossians 3:15 says, “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.”
Embrace God’s peace and be thankful.
In God, Deborah
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