something's happening here...

Oh to have been a shepherd in the field near Bethlehem long ago. I envy at their being chosen to be the first to receive the Good News. And so, I have often wondered why we don’t have more shepherd displays with lights and such. It just seems to me that would be appropriate. Anyway, I identify with the shepherds quietly tending their sheep, dozing off, only to startle awake at the bleat of a sheep, or some other nearby sound, then dozing back off to sleep. Shepherds understand stillness and peace, as anyone would who has spent time at night with nothing but the stars above and the fragrant grass beneath. There is just something unnique about the very  late hours of the night when everything living is asleep and the only sound heard is one's own heartbeat. On this particular evening, I believe the silence was all the more heavy and expectant.  And I believe every animal was somehow cosmically aware of the coming miracle at the manger.

For a shepherd silence is normal, but on this night I believe they noticed a deepening silence, and an enveloping sense of peace more than usual.  I can only imagine how their hearts must have raced into their throats at the sudden burst of brilliance all around them. To go from a dreamy sleepy dozing  in warm cozy blankets, around a small fire, to  consumed in vivid, radiant light must have paralyzed them. I can think of no comparable experience that would send so much adrenalin surging throughout one's being! Hello!!! I would imagine the shepherds were unable to speak, let alone breath. An then the angel proclaiming good news to these the shepherds, and I can't imagine them doing anything else otherthan running to find out what is going on!!!!   Awesome!

So tonight, I choose to remember the shepherd; wandering, wondering and laughing as God prepared his greatest work for us all. I choose to dream of how they felt at that first burst of light, of how their hearts raced, and at their wonder of the words, and what this all might mean for them and for their future. I choose to wonder about what they must have talked about on their way to the manger, to see this thing about which the angel spoke. I wish I could make that same journey, on that same night. So tonight, I will ponder these things in my heart. And as my wife and I journey to worship at 11:00pm we will experience the fullness of the silence, and we will talk about the things of which the angel spoke as we make our way to the manger to worship the Christ Child!

Yes, tonight, we are shepherds!