You hear the Christmas story every year. Who are your favorite characters? You can't say Jesus!  Well you can, but that would be the obvious answer.  

On my gut instinct I would say Mary, after all she's really the only girl in the story.  But after having lots of chances to hear the Christmas story I would have to say that I like  the shepherds. 

In the story, you find them in the fields watching their flocks.  In pictures they're standing around with their "shepherds' crooks" waiting on wolves and stuff.  It seems like they weren't too busy.  But their job was serious business.  We know that an angel showed up and told them about the birth of the Savior. They decided to go and see.

 It doesn't sound like the shepherds wrote "Go see Jesus" on their calendar.  They didn't say, "You go, and I'll stay here with the sheep".  They didn't decide to stay where they were and send a fruit basket instead.  Luke 2:15 says that they went when the angels had left.  And it says that they"hurried".  They hurried to Jesus.  Good thinking.

They saw baby Jesus.  I don't know when they went back to what they were doing in the fields, but the Bible also tells us that they spread the word about what they had seen.  I wish I knew what they said, but whatever it was "amazed" the people they spoke with (Luke 2:18).  Out of all of the good news you've ever heard, the news that -Jesus is here with us, is the best news there is.

I know the shepherds went back to their "normal" lives though I bet their lives weren't the same.  Its says in verse 20 that even when they returned, "they were glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen".   Just because your family packs up your Christmas tree in a few weeks and "The Grinch" doesn't show up on TV for twelve months doesn't mean that the celebration is over; Jesus' coming is something to be celebrated everyday.

Just like the shepherds got an invitation to come and adore the Christ child, we have that same invitation. We have parties to go to, cookies to bake and presents to unwrap.  But let us be like the shepherds who abandoned everything to look upon a baby sent to take away the sins of the world. 

As they left, they shared Christ to a world in need.

 They did go back to their fields.  And with them, they carried the knowledge that Jesus came-for us!  

 It's news that needs to be told; a story that never gets old.

Who's your favorite Christmas character?

 

I can remember when Hayden was about four. He had his first part in a Christmas play. He was a shepherd. (maybe that's another reason I'm partial to shepherds). He only had one line in the whole play. In his most hick Texas accent he said, "Let us go to Bethlehem and see this child". I can still hear him. 

 I

 heart

shepherds.