05 Dec To the broken and broke-down at Christmas

I’ve lost two babes at two different times in the days before Christmas.

And so I revel in the humanity of the players. I empathize with young Mary, of course.

I keep thinking of her physical feelings, her emotions at being a first-time mother. Closing my eyes and thinking of her in labor-in a cave/stable/animal dwelling. The smell, the temperature, the dust, the pain. Cleaning, or trying to clean him. Nursing him for the first time. How sweet that moment is. Or scary, or frustrating, or overwhelming. Unwashed teenage boys traipsing in to see her wee man. Was she scared? Happy? I just love knowing that Jesus had a mommy who did mommy things like nursing, and wiping bottoms, and soothing tears, and swaying to calm Him, and loving His smiles. All the while knowing He was never really hers.

But today, today I want to talk to you about the shepherds. The unwashed teenage boys crowded around the manger. 

The Shepherds

Shepherds were second class, or no class citizens. They were despised, untrusted, and outcast.

“Smug religious leaders maintained a strict caste system at the expense of shepherds and other common folk. Shepherds were officially labeled “sinners”—a technical term for a class of despised people.”

And yet …

“Into this social context of religious snobbery and class prejudice, God’s Son stepped forth. How surprising and significant that Father God handpicked lowly, unpretentious shepherds to first hear the joyous news: “It’s a boy, and He’s the Messiah!” ~ From Randy Alcorn, Eternal Perspective Ministries. {www.epm.org}.

The angel promises the shepherds in Luke 2:10, “… good news of great joy that will be for all the people.”

For all of us. The broken, the broke-down, the hurting, the poor and the lonely. All of us, the wounded and the wound makers. The Shepherd came to the shepherds, for the shepherds.

The Good News of Christmas

And oh, the Good News. We don’t just celebrate a Birth at Christmas. We celebrate victory over death, over sin. We celebrate a Wonderful Counselor, a Mighty God, the Prince of Peace {from Isaiah 9:6}.

Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. His peace is not as the world gives -is unable to give {from John 14:27}.

Peace to mend a broken heart, a broken marriage, peace to bind the wounds of our shattered lives. Peace to calm a grieving mother as she watched her Son die slowly on a cross.

“Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them”  Luke 8:20.

Dear friends, take a moment to marvel at the news this Christmas, to dwell in peace. To praise God for the Good News of great joy that will be for all the people.

~M.