<\/p>\n
Luke 2:18\u00a0 \u00a0And all those who heard\u00a0it<\/i>\u00a0marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Imagine you are a shepherd in ancient Israel: Your job is mundane, dirty, and maybe even a little frightening. You\u2019re out in the wilderness, away from town, and the only light you see at night comes from the fire around which you are huddled and the moon hanging overhead. With that small field of vision, you\u2019re supposed to not only keep track of your sheep, but also protect them from attack.<\/p>\n
Suddenly, a supernatural brightness\u2014\u201cthe glory of the Lord\u201d<\/em>\u2014blinds your eyes, and there\u2019s somebody there, unlike anything you\u2019ve seen before. Perhaps you immediately realize that it\u2019s the angel of the Lord, or maybe you are so consumed with confusion that it takes a minute to sink in that this being is from the heavenly realm. Either way, you\u2019re so awestruck that the angel\u2019s first words are,\u00a0\u201cDo not be afraid.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n
\u201cBehold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I wonder if the shepherds collapsed to the ground during this overwhelming experience. We know they felt fear, of course, but imagine the flood of emotions as they begin to realize that the angel of the Lord is proclaiming the news of the arrival of the Messiah!<\/p>\n
What is the Messiah? The One promised since Genesis 3, who would come and rescue all of mankind. For the Jewish people, this is the One they had been longing for. And the shepherds are some of the first to hear of His arrival.<\/p>\n
If the knees of the shepherds hadn\u2019t buckled by that point, you can be sure that they did when suddenly the skies lit up and one angel became\u00a0\u201ca multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying: \u2018Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!\u2019\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n
It\u2019s no surprise that they immediately ran to find the Child in the manger, and returned passionately glorifying and praising God!<\/p>\n
Fear, confusion, awe, joy\u2014the shepherds experienced the gamut of emotions that historic night.<\/p>\n
How about you? As you read this passage, are you still filled with awe? Do you empathize with the confusion and fear? Can you feel their joy? If not, reread Luke 2 and try to envision it from the shepherd\u2019s perspective once again, and pray that the Holy Spirit will fill you with His joy this Christmas season. (Graham)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Luke 2:18\u00a0 \u00a0And all those who heard\u00a0it\u00a0marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds. Imagine you are a shepherd in ancient Israel: Your job is mundane, dirty, and maybe even a little frightening. You\u2019re out in the wilderness, away from town, and the only light you see at night comes from … Continue reading “57.s. Luke 2:18”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-195008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-prayers"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195008"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":195011,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195008\/revisions\/195011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}