For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. [Isaiah 9:6 (NLT)]
Come, thou long expected Jesus, born to set thy people free;
from our fears and sins release us, let us find our rest in thee.
Israel’s strength and consolation, hope of all the earth thou art;
dear desire of every nation, joy of every longing heart. [Charles Wesley]
I imagine the shepherds probably were more concerned with making it through the night warm, safe, and without losing any sheep than they were with the eventual arrival of the promised Messiah. They certainly never expected an angel to appear to announce His birth nor did they anticipate a host of angels singing God’s praises. Nevertheless, it was shepherds who received the good news that a child was born—a child who would be their Savior, Messiah, and Lord.
Shouldn’t this news have been given to the wealthy, powerful, or religious rather than a group of shepherds in a field? Shepherds, especially those charged with the night watch, were among the lowest of the low. Considered disreputable, rough, dirty, ritually unclean, and possibly dangerous, it hardly seems logical that outcast shepherds were the first ones to get Jesus’ birth announcement!
Then again, everything about the Christmas story is contrary to expectations. In fact, the Christmas story doesn’t even begin with Jesus; it begins with an angel, an old priest named Zechariah, his barren wife Elizabeth, a miraculous pregnancy, and a prophecy. When it finally gets to Jesus, we find an angel visiting the Galilean village of Nazareth, a place so insignificant that it’s not even mentioned in the Old Testament, Talmud, or even the historic writings of Josephus! It was hardly the hometown of a king! One would expect God to select a royal princess as the mother of His only Son instead of a young peasant girl. As a virgin, Mary certainly never expected a pregnancy before marriage nor did her fiancé Joseph.
Although Micah prophesied that the promised Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, Joseph and Mary were in Bethlehem only because of a census. When Mary’s time came, she gave birth to God’s Son in a borrowed stable, farm animals served as midwives, and the Prince of Peace lay in a feed trough instead of a splendid crib. Rather than royal courtiers, the King of Kings was surrounded by lowly shepherds and, instead of extravagant robes, the Lion of Judah was wrapped in rags. Other than the shepherds, it seems that the only people who took notice of Christ’s arrival were pagan astrologers from the East. Then, once the child’s presence became known to Herod, He was hunted instead of welcomed and His family fled in terror to Egypt! None of this fits the way we’d expect a Messiah’s story to go if we were writing it. Fortunately, we weren’t!
Yes, Messiah had been long expected but He came in a most unexpected way! None of this seems to makes sense until we understand that God didn’t come for the rich and mighty; He came for the poor and the lowly. He came for shepherds and lepers and the crippled, hungry, and poor. He came for the woman with the blood disorder, blind Bartimaeus, the woman caught in adultery, the Samaritan woman at the well, Mary Magdalene, and the Gentile demoniac in the Gerasenes. He came for tax-collectors like Zacchaeus and Matthew/Levi, zealots like Simon, and fishermen like Peter, John, James, and Andrew. He came for the thief on the cross, the widow of Nain, Jarius and his daughter, the Syrophoenician woman and her daughter, and the Roman centurion. He even came for Pharisees like Nicodemus and rich council members like Joseph of Arimathea. Jesus came for people like you and me—the ordinary, flawed, and sinful beings that we are.
The people of Judah expected a conquering king who would overthrow the Romans but what the world got was a King who overthrew Satan and conquered sin and death!
God never just meets our expectations; He surpasses them as only God can do! Thank you, God!
Born thy people to deliver, born a child and yet a King,
born to reign in us forever, now thy gracious kingdom bring.
By thine own eternal spirit rule in all our hearts alone;
by thine all sufficient merit, raise us to thy glorious throne. [Charles Wesley]
While browsing a bookstore (yes, they still exist), I came across a book offering more than 100 ways to say “Thank you.” It suggested ways to express one’s appreciation for milestone celebrations, business opportunities, assistance, social events, and assorted gifts. It even offered “damage control” for tardy thank you notes. There also were chapters devoted to topics like stationery, envelopes, and internet etiquette. One chapter offered a “thank you thesaurus” complete with several “glowing superlatives and energetic adjectives.”
Our fast-paced world is ever-changing and once ordinary items like slide rules, cassette tapes, boom boxes, floppy discs, dial phones, film, and VCRs are relics. My kids don’t use maps, write checks, or have a land line and my grands have never used a library card catalogue, set of encyclopedias, dictionary, carbon paper, or typewriter. We no longer need to get up to change channels, turn the lights on or off, or see who’s at the door. Our camera, maps, calculator, credit cards, compass, note pad, address book, plane tickets, and Bible all fit into our cell phones and everything on our phones (along with a fitness tracker and heart monitor) fits into a watch!
Because the nearby bird sanctuary/swamp gets its water from rainfall, the size of its lakes fluctuates substantially with the seasons. During the dry seasons of winter and spring, the swamp’s lakes gradually recede until the summer rains begin. When this annual dry-down occurs in springtime, the wading birds congregate in the shallow lakes. With the fish having no place to hide the shallow water, it’s as easy as catching fish in a rain barrel for the birds!
Novelist Salman Rushdie said, “In the cookie of life, friends are the chocolate chips.” I agree. Granted, life can be as pleasant as a plain sugar cookie but, when you add chocolate chips to the batter or friends to the mix, it becomes something extra special.
As a way of emphasizing the penitential nature of Lent, hymns with alleluia or hallelujah were not sung at our church during Lent’s forty days. With the exception of Palm Sunday’s All Glory, Laud, and Honor, the hymns for the last six weeks were rather slow, somber, and introspective and I missed the more joyful upbeat hymns I enjoy. Easter service, however, opened with Christ the Lord is Risen Today and the twenty “Alleluias” we sang in five verses made up for their long absence.
Devotions of the Heart 