3^rd Sunday of Advent - 

"Shepherds - Sharing Good News" 

There's an interesting series of phrases found in Luke 2, verses 8-20. These phrases, with the exception of one, are pertaining to the shepherds. The one exception is about the young mother, Mary.

The shepherds were living out in the fields nearby. An angel, just one, appeared to them and they were terrified. Then more angels, not just more, but a 'host,' a word used in connection with armies, joined the first angel. 

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to each another, 'Let's go to see what this angel is talking about.' They hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 

When they had seen him, they spread the word about what had been told them, everybody who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.

But, Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.

The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen. 

• They were living out in the nearby fields, 

• they were terrified at the sight of the angel, 

• they were curious so went to see what the angel was talking about, 

• when they had seen the baby they told everyone who would listen everything that had been told to them, 

• then they went back to the fields were they lived, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen.

Their lives went from common and mundane straight to sheer terror, then to curiosity, then to celebrity (probably not much more than the '15 minutes' commonly talked about), then back to the same sheep in the same fields - but with something to be excited about.

It strikes me that there is a cure for any person's mundane existence in this passage!

Are you bogged down in what seems to be a mundane daily routine? Are you succumbing to a monotonous life? Perhaps you ought to revisit 'the reason for the season.'

This is "Joy to the world," Jesus has come to 'save us from our sins.' Sometimes that can literally be applied as 'He came to save us from ourselves.' And, when my 'self' gets bogged down in mundane existence I need saving from myself.

Joy is internal. We look for the external to make us happy. Jesus came not to make us happy, but to provide the source of the internal and eternal joy...life!

Life is found in curiosity, celebration, and yes - even in terror. Get your heart pumping and blood flowing, the adrenaline and endorphins working. Get all excited and experience the season with its call to loving, giving, singing and smiling - being...this is LIFE, this is CHRISTMAS!

It shouldn't take an army of angels to motivate you. Your sins are forgiven and you have hope of eternal life. That ought to be enough.

To return to the Devotionals and Readings on Advent click here!