Dec 12 - Luke 2:8

And in that region there were

shepherds out in the field,

keeping watch over their flock by night.

Luke 2:8

When God sent out birth announcements for the coming of his Son, who received the news first?

It wasn’t kings or governors. It wasn’t royalty or the rich. It wasn’t even priests or scribes. It was shepherds -- dirty, rotten, stinking shepherds.

Actually, I don’t know if they were “rotten” – or any more or less rotten than any of the rest of us. Yes, we’re all sinful. But these men of the field surely smelled more ripe and rotting than the rest of us.

They were a forgotten class. The people “with class” wandered the streets of cities – rubbing elbows, trading goods, kneeling publicly in sanctuaries. Shepherds were not quite outcasts, but they were mostly out-of-sight, out-of-mind.

But no one is out-of-mind to God! The Father chose a peasant girl to carry his Son. Then he announced the birth majestically to those farthest from majesty. He ministered to beggars and lepers and foreigners and prostitutes. Our God cares about everyone … including the lowly!

And that means he cares about you. And it’s not in your strength and competence that he cares about you; it’s in your weakness, humbleness, and vulnerability. Why? Because when you’re vulnerable, then you’re finally real. When we puff ourselves up, we’re usually wearing the mask. We may think others will be impressed by our disguise, but God sees beneath the illusion. And when we’re humbled and honest and vulnerable, we’re finally who God has created. And that’s who he loves.

In Christ’s Love,

a guy who loves the Shepherd

who loves the shepherds