Daily devotion – the shepherds
LUKE 2: 8 Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. 10 Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. 11 For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
Shepherds at the time of Jesus birth, had some what of an unsavoury reputation. They were often regarded as dishonest and unreliable. Yet God chose such men to announce the most magnificent, good news the world has ever heard. That of the birth of the long-awaited Messiah. How did these working class men respond?
Firstly, they ran to Bethlehem to see for their own eyes what the angels had reported to them. It says they ‘hurried off’ and they found He who they had been looking for – “he who seeks finds” Matthew 7:8.
Secondly, after they had seen Jesus with their own eyes, “they spread the word” concerning all that they had seen and heard. They could not keep the good news to themselves. They wanted everybody to know it.
Thirdly, “The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen.” Verse 20. In other words, their experience resulted in worship as well as witness. But we first read that the shepherds ‘returned’.
They did not spend the rest of their lives in the stable or loitering around the manger. Instead, they returned to the fields and the sheep, to their homes and their families. But although their jobs and their homes were the same, the shepherds were not. They had been changed by seeing Jesus!
There was now a spirit of wonder and worship deep within their hearts.
Whenever one discovers Jesus Christ, there today is still that same transforming experience. Our old lifestyle disappears, and we see all things new. Billy Graham put it like this, “Jesus puts a new light in our eye and a new spring in our step.”
The apostle Paul went even further, he described it this way, 2Co 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
Let us this Christmas who know Christ, let us be as excited as the shepherds and worship and witness all that we too have seen and heard. For we too have been changed!