THURSDAY December 19th
As I began to prepare this devotion I had turned to another carol, and read some of the verses and then thought to myself, ‘O no, it’s the shepherds again’ and then decided what is wrong with that, it is amazing how God chose that within the nativity as we have it recorded in Matthew and Luke to proclaim the birth of Jesus to both the ones considered to be of a lowly occupation, the shepherds on the local hillside and to the ones at the other end of the scale, the wise men or as we often refer to them as the three kings from orient far.
And then to top it all, God plans everything so that the baby was born in the lowliest of circumstances, we usually depict as being in a manager in a cattle’s stall.
The carol I turned to is ‘Christians awake, salute the happy morn’, and verse 4:
To Bethlehem straight the enlightened shepherds ran,
To see the wonder God had wrought for man:
Then to their flocks, still praising God return,
And their glad hearts with holy rapture burn;
Amazed, the wonderous tidings they proclaim,
The first apostles of his infant fame.
It was the first two lines ‘To Bethlehem straight the enlightened shepherd ran, to see the wonder God had wrought for man’.
I mentioned while speaking recently, of how many have watched their children taking part in nativity plays in school or in Sunday school and yet have missed the wonder of what the story is all about. That God sent Jesus into this world to save sinners. And in doing so bringing hope, joy, peace and love.
What if the shepherds had ignored the angel announcing the news and the angelic choir singing the praises of God—you can imagine that as word had spread concerning as to what had happened in the cattle shed, and they heard it from others, the regret that would have been in their hearts for not going. But they didn’t ignore, they listened and as Luke 2:16 says ‘they made haste’ and found everything exactly as the angel had announced.
Sadly today, as we go through this advent season, many will still ignore the wonder of the message, and the reality of the historical fact that Jesus did come into this world and that he did die to be the Saviour of the world. They will get so wrapped up in everything else that takes place without coming to bow before the newborn king. And the even sadder reality is that one day, they will find themselves standing before God in the presence of Jesus, but then it will be too late, and they will be full of regret for ignoring the real meaning of Christmas and regret their rejection of Jesus.
This carol also reminds us of what Luke records for us in his gospel, that having discovered the joy of Jesus, the shepherds ‘made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child’. A lot of folks won’t go to watch a nativity, may not even enter a Church over this advent season, but they may listen as we who have found Jesus seek to tell them something of this amazing story.