Word-Filled Wednesday ~#103~ What Would YOU Do?

"And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks by night. And angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said the them, 'Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

"Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 

'Glory to God int he highest,

and on earth peace to men on

whome His favor rests.'"

~Luke 2:4-14

We are so spoiled by movie special effects. Have you ever noticed that it takes more and more zap-boom-pow to keep our attention and get us talking about "how cool" certain parts of our favorite action movies are? The incredible transformation of the Transformers or Ironman . . . the all-to-real looking explosions in war movies . . . special effects that can man people appear and disappear . . . animation that can so look life-like as the damsel's hair waves and moves just like a real person's hair. It's just amazing what the mind of man can conceive and put into action.

Now . . . pretend you lived a little over 2,000 years ago . . . what would YOU do if you were a poor shepherd living the same ol' life day-after-day, trailing the sheep, keeping them safe and well, having the same conversation with your fellow shepherd buddies . . . when . . . all of a sudden! An ANGEL shining with the glory of the Lord appears in the sky above you and starts TALKING to you and your friends?!?! 

WHAT would YOU do?! 

Some of today's hard-hearted cynics might say that they were poor, uneducated and, dare I say what they would say . . . stupid . . . men and boys, that they simply either wanted attention and made the story up or they were "mass hallucinating" (a term that has always made me laugh). Now, the thing is, is that these "poor, misguided" shepherds REALLY DID see and angel in the sky shining with the glory of the Lord; not only that, but THEN, a whole HOST of other angels joined him and sang about this birth of the Messiah! 

WHAT would YOU do?! 

I know what I would do ~ I would BELIEVE them. And that's just what the shepherds did. Not only did they believe, but they obeyed the word of the angel and followed his directions. Did they have any choice? I doubt that they felt they had any choice. They weren't so non-chalant about blinding lights from the sky, celestial beings speaking to them and numberless choirs of angels singing praise songs about the newborn King and stars leading that way for them. Nope. This was not part of their realm of reality. 

So . . . WHAT would YOU do?!

I'll tell you what they did ~ they followed that star to the stable where they found a frightened young couple lovingly worrying over their newborn Babe. THE King was laying in a feeding trough, wrapping in swaddling (burial) cloths, being warmed by the breath of the farm animals sharing His humble shelter. And when they saw Him, they WORSHIPPED and then they SPREAD THE WORD about all these amazing things that they had seen. Their world had turned up-side-down and they were going tell anyone who would listen.

These simple shepherds were not used to all of this. They knew nothing of special effects, Hollywood was beyond their comprehension. So, this Christmas, as you are possibly reading the Christmas story before you open your presents, as our family does, keep this in mind. When the Bible says that an angel appeared to them shining with the glory of the Lord, they were seeing something beyond their wildest dreams. When the Bible says that they were terrified . . . they were terrified! And then think about . . .

WHAT would YOU do?

Blessings from Ohio . . . Kim<><