(Small watercolor study of a bugling elk)
In the very familiar account of the birth of Jesus Christ, one group of the participants involved stands out to me. The shepherds who were working the late night shift on the hillsides around Jerusalem resonate with me. As author Walter Wangerin describes them, they were "the working stiffs" who were the unfortunate fellows to pull the night duty. Yet it is precisely there, at that late hour and in that desolate place, that the quiet night sky burst into the equivalent of Handel's The Messiah performance with the mass angelic choir bursting with "Glory to God, glory to God, Glory to God in the Highest"!
Can you imagine what on earth those shepherds' first responses/gut reactions were?! What would yours have been? When these sheep herders realized what was being sung and about Who it was being sung, it didn't take long for them to respond with the utmost joy! Off they headed to see what and Who was in the manger at Bethlehem. They didn't need a theological treatise to explain to them the essence of the angels' message. They understood that God had come to rescue mankind from it's great dilemma by providing a Saviour in the Person of His Son, Jesus Christ. That is pure wild joy!!! That is what Christmas is all about!
Enjoy this piece, "Glory to God" from Handel's "The Messiah" and imagine you are right there on those quiet hillsides outside Bethlehem with those shepherds when suddenly...:
Live bravely and beautifully!
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