And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks by night.  An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them…  When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened.”
                                                                        Luke 2:8,9,15

This part of Luke’s narrative from that first Christmas affords me so much hope.  Unlike the wise men, who had been searching the skies, studying the stars, and enjoyed the means to devote their lives to such, these poor shepherds weren’t looking for anything.  They were just trying to survive.  The passage says that they were “living out in the fields”.  This wasn’t some hobby or a second job, this was their life.  Uneducated and consumed with the 24/7 task of keeping track of their flocks, they could neither find the time nor develop the knowledge to look for a savior if they wanted to.

And that’s the cool part.  You see, God doesn’t disqualify them from the Christmas story just because of their life circumstances.  He could have.  He could have restricted the guest list to only those star gazers, or just the Annas and Simeons who had been waiting for the ‘consolation of Israel’ (Luke 2:25).  He could have limited his announcement to only those who were pure in heart like Mary or only the righteous like Joseph.  But He doesn’t.  He reaches out of eternity, sending his personal messengers with all of the pomp and circumstance due the arrival of a King … to this small group of sheep herders.

It’s brilliant!  The confused and terrified shepherds, the field on the outskirts of nowhere, the heavens filled with thousands upon thousands of Angels proclaiming the greatness of this King.  What better picture of what Christmas is all about?  Jesus, meeting us where we are, when we least expect it, with a message of unimaginable beauty.

Yet maybe even more impressive is the response of these men.  “So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby …” (Luke 2:16).  They didn’t need any further convincing.  The sheep would wait.  No need to study the thing. God had spoken to them, offered a gift … there was no way they were going to miss this one.

He’s still speaking, you know.  He’s still coming out to our fields of despair and into our lives of insignificance, calling us out of the wilderness to come quickly, and ‘see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.’

I doubt the shepherds were ever the same after that night.  I pray that this season, as you hear that story again and visit the manger one more time, that you would never be the same again – regardless of where you are at this moment.

To the King,

David