Luke 2:1-20

I can’t stop thinking about Mary this advent season. She is most likely a young teenager, smack in the middle of those awkward years, trying to figure out where she will fit into society and what her future might hold. Her hand has been given to Joseph for marriage, which would have been very common for a girl her age, but she has also been visited by an angel and told she is pregnant when she knows she is sexually pure. This is so much to take in and so much more to have to explain to her fiancé, parents, friends at “church” and the town. A baby doesn’t stay hidden or secret for long…pregnancy becomes obvious over time. The weight of all of this must have been unbearable for her until she was able to start unloading this information and experiencing that she was believed by some. Then a trip, right around the time she was due. Her mom isn’t with her to help her or bring reassurance when she goes into labor. She is tired from travel, not at home, maybe in a barn or a cave with a young man who probably hasn’t even seen a birth before let alone helped with one, and she begins the process of delivery. My heart goes out to her. I remember the fear and inadequate feelings I had when our first was born and I was more than twice Mary’s age, had a hospital and doctors with me, a husband who I knew and had loved for years, and a support team including two sets of parents and a slew of siblings and friends ready to jump at the call for help at any moment! This poor girl…talk about waiting and anticipation!

 

…And then the shepherds…out in the wilderness with their sheep, far from home and probably weeks or months without seeing other humans besides each other. This is what their lives are about. They are watching and protecting their animals, constantly moving them to stay in good grazing areas with a water supply close enough to keep them all in good health. It is their job to keep the predators at bay and find the food and water supplies needed to keep the flock growing and healthy. Then one night it is completely different than ever before! In the middle of the night the angel of the Lord appears among them. They are terrified! The angel says, “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior has been born and you will find Him in the city of David wrapped in cloth lying in a manger. If this isn’t scary enough, the angel is joined by a vast host of others…the armies of heaven…praising God! I love the word choice in the living Bible here. “Vast host” doesn’t pull up the same word picture in my mind that “armies of heaven” does. Hopefully most of us have not experienced war first hand, but all of us have seen movies depicting war. The ones with the mass of armed bodies as far as the eye can see advancing across a field to take out their enemies. The scenes that make your stomach drop when you see eminent attack heading your way, because the filmmakers have put you at the other side of the field or down in the valley with the group being attacked. You grasp the feeling that those shepherds must have felt when that sky opened up to more than one army of angels. The difference on this night is that the army was announcing the birth of the King instead of coming to wipe out a nation. They came praising God! The shepherds knew Who they had been visited by and quickly went to the village to find Mary, Joseph and the baby. They found all just as the angel had told them. After their visit, they told everyone what had happened and what the angel had told them. Then they went back to their flocks glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen.

 

After surviving delivery, Mary began shifting her focus to caring for this new little person. If you have kids, do you remember that reality settling over you? “This new life is completely dependent on me for survival.” It is weighty. I’m sure Mary’s mind was whirling with all that had happened that night…and then a group of dirty shepherds shows up to “visit” her baby. So strange and awkward for all of them. I can’t imagine living through those moments in time or sharing my new baby with a group of strangers, but God designed this set of circumstances. This was no average night. The excitement must have been palpable. The Savior, the Messiah, the Lord has been born! Hope has arrived! This is great joy for all people.

 

It’s getting close…are you getting excited? Are you making time to ponder these events in your heart like Mary did? Is your heart ready to welcome Him or are you overwhelmed with your to-do list and scrambling to get everything accomplished! Can we carve out a few minutes each day even in the busyness to anticipate His coming and welcome Him in our hearts?