The Shepherds

Whenever I think about the Christmas story as it is told in the Word, it is the old shepherds which intrigue me the most.  While I know little first hand about sheep or shepherds, reading has pointed me to learning that the shepherds likely had an odor about them which caused the town people to be glad they did their work out in the fields. They seem to be a rare breed who enjoyed the rigors of being outdoors and the challenge of keeping safe vulnerable animals.    

Perhaps, the most famous of the Biblical shepherds was David who fought Goliath and became the King of Israel, but I find that I am still partial to those unnamed guys who were visitors to Mary and Joseph on the night of the birth of Jesus.  What strike me most is that they were the most unlikely ones to be the first which is the way God works.  God always is full of surprises using the most unlikely people to do His work. They came to the birth place with no gifts except their eagerness to see what the angels had told them.   

And, perhaps, that is one the things their story tells us.  Over the years of celebrating this ancient story of the birth of Jesus into our world, we have lost our own eagerness to see and to know with wonder and amazement what is really out there for us to see.  Everything about the season has become so ho-hum that we have lost the sense of mystery and magic which is a shame since there is so much of it in the story of the holy miracle which showed up in Bethlehem.  Without being captivated by the mystery of that moment, we become like the poet wrote, folks who are content with picking blackberries when heaven is exploding all around us.