Shepherds in our Midst
Luke 2:8-20
The Luke passage make me wonder: who are the shepherds in my life? Who are the people I might not even notice, who nevertheless have amazing news -- first given to them by a messenger from God and then confirmed with their own eyes? Who are everyday people who have a witness about the amazing things God is doing in out-of-the-way, off-the-radar places every, single day?
Jesus’ birth didn’t make the headlines in all the Jerusalem papers and cable news shows. People were too busy with sideline analysis of the politically powerful. Their gaze was focused only on celebrity. The religious people completely missed God’s coming into the world in a manger. Most of them didn’t even know any shepherds personally.
But neither do I. Do I see the shepherds in my life? Hear them? Do I pay attention or do I miss it? When I am able to hear it, do I receive it with wonder and praise? Or do I scoff, ignore it? Maybe my shepherds are the women recently released from incarceration who have started their own coffee roasting company as they seek positive and permanent change in their lives. Or the second grader who went to the hospital to help his friend walk after a car accident. Surely there are many, many shepherds with untold stories of the Holy One inbreaking into our lives each day.
The day after Christmas, when the excitement is over and we return to everyday life, the shepherds are just now beginning to tell their story, the amazing news of what they have seen and heard, “good news to you—wonderful, joyous news for all people” (v. 10). This good news is God’s coming into the world -- not in a chariot, not at the microphone of a press conference, but in an out-of-the-way, off-the-radar shelter for animals, with illiterate field workers in charge of spreading the good news. God is coming into the world this very day. I pray that I will see and hear the shepherds in my life!