Why the shepherds?

   Between seeing my nativity scene several times a day, and being in my church's live nativity as a wise man, I've been thinking a lot about the nativity/Jesus' birth. I guess that is a good thing this time of year. I got to thinking about  the shepherds last night. Of all the people to announce the birth of a Savior, the King...... God picked the shepherds.

   Oh, the wise men came too, but from what we know, they worked for it. They studied and watched the skies, and though God let them via a new star, they got no special announcement by a throng of angels, yet the shepherds did.

   Shepherds were lowly people. I doubt they were the most intelligent or clean guys. You can't be too clean if you're hanging out for days at a time with sheep, yet God chose the shepherds to announce His birth to. Why? Well, I'm glad you asked. I had some thoughts about that. Maybe its because they are the only ones who would have paid attention. Maybe they were the only ones who would believe it. A baby in a manger...... born in a place that they were familiar with, in circumstances they were familiar with.

   We saw how Herod reacted when he heard. He was afraid he would be replaced, so he had all of the baby boys up to a certain age killed. Had the angels appeared to him, he would have tried all the sooner to kill this new King.

   And why would God tell the religious leaders of the day? They didn't want a baby in a manger. They didn't want a Savior. They wanted a royal King, a warrior who would free them. Three decades later, they killed that baby, so why tell them?

   So you have royalty who wanted to kill Him, and the religious leaders who scoffed and later did kill him..... who did that leave? The lowliest people, the kind of people Jesus came for.

   Would it be any different today? We tend to do as the religious leaders of that day. We might not kill Him, but we try to put God in a box. Jesus wouldn't look like we expect. He wouldn't dress like we expect, not act like we think a King or Savior should act. I'm afraid too many of us would scoff and ignore a Jesus that would come on the scene today.

   But He is here. No, not as a baby in a manger, but He is still here, and we do act like the religious leaders of the day. We shy away from a Jesus/God who doesn't do what we expect. We put Him in a box and worship the kind of God we want. He might be the God our church or family invented. We may have gotten tired of that God and ran to another church to worship their God..... but we have just exchanged Him for someone else's God.

   The Christmas story will never be what it should be to us until we find God for ourselves. We need to find our own Jesus, not one who has been created or invented for us. And we need to find the heart of Jesus. We get so caught up in rules, traditions, in our busy lives. If Jesus were to be born into this world, would we be among those God would choose to announce the birth to? Or would we be too busy, too intent on our own ideals of what a Savior and King would be like, that God would pass us by and announce it to someone else.

  Of all the people that were part of His birth, the shepherds and Mary were the most honored. God chose Mary to carry and give birth to His Son. What greater honor could there be? We can't be Mary, but we can be the shepherds. Lowly and expectant, and obedient. They went immediately to the stable.