And then we have the sheep. It’s interesting which animals are not mentioned and which are. We have all these Christmas cards with the Wisemen riding camels. On another shelf are the cards showing Mary riding a donkey. Then we have the Christmas carols talking about the animals in the stable around the manger. Those are all traditions. The only animals mentioned are the sheep that are being watched by the shepherds.
There is no indication that the sheep got excited by the angels. I’m wondering if they ever even looked up. Were the angels only visible to the shepherds? It is possible. Remember on the road to Damascus only Paul saw the bright light. I would think that if the sheep had seen them, they would have gotten panicked and stampeded, or whatever sheep do. There is no mention of any such event.
How like us. There are miracles going on all around us and so often we just keep going about business as usual. There are times when we should be shouting “glory” and instead all we can say is, “Pass the potatoes.” There are times when the glories of God are declared from the pulpit or lectern and we should be running the aisles, but instead we are gripping because he’s using the KJV.
Recently, we had a lesson taken from the 23rd Psalm. In looking at the Psalm, I noticed that sheep are never mentioned. It talks about the Shepherd. It talks about the writer. Sheep do not make an appearance, but they are inferred. It brought to mind another verse that does talk about the sheep,
Psalm 100:3 (KJV) Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.In the stable, there were only three people to start with. When the wisemen got there, there were just a few of them. The shepherds probably represented a little bit larger group. The biggest group, of course where the sheep out in the field. That’s us folks. During this time when we should be celebrating the incarnation and God becoming man, we spend much of our time as sheep in the field.
Take a few moments to stop and look up. You can do it figuratively or literally, but the point is during this time of year grab the opportunity to rejoice in the God of our salvation, and that He was willing to come and make the sacrificeso that we could know eternal life.
Merry Christmas.
homo unius libri
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments are welcome. Feel free to agree or disagree but keep it clean, courteous and short. I heard some shorthand on a podcast: TLDR, Too long, didn't read.