"What if something happens to the sheep while we're gone?"
"We can't possibly take all the sheep with us."
"It's the middle of the night!"
"We don't know where this feeding trough is exactly."
"This is crazy! We must be seeing things."
The shepherds COULD have asked all these questions, made all these excuses, stood around talking to each other and trying to figure out what they had just seen and heard. But they DIDN'T.
Scripture seems to tell us that as soon as the heavenly host left, the shepherds were on their way to Bethlehem to find the baby "wrapped snugly in strips of cloth and lying in a manger." I would think the angels could have given better directions on how to find this Messiah baby, but maybe that's just me - the one who gets lost without GPS, and sometimes even with it!
Apparently, the shepherds were better at finding places than I am because Luke's description makes it look like they left their sheep and made a mad dash straight to the stable. No wrong turns. No stopping to ask how to get there. Simply, "they found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in the feeding trough."
Obviously, God was directing their steps and guiding them to the place where Jesus was.
He's pretty good at that.
Showing us what to do and where to go and how to get there.
OUR problem is that we aren't more like the shepherds.
First, we tend to want to be absolutely, positively, beyond a shadow of doubt certain about what God is telling us. We ask for a flashing neon sign just to make sure we aren't mistaken. In doing so, I think we far too often miss the soft whispers God gently breathes into our ears.
Second, even if we did have angels appear out of nowhere in the middle of the night and break out in song to let us know about something extra special God was doing, we very well might stand there and over-analyze the invitation. We would question how to get there, what to do with the sheep, consider all the "what-if" scenarios that could happen, worry about all that could go wrong, and make up excuses for why we can't possibly go right this second.
And so we miss out.
BIG TIME.
Thank goodness the shepherds weren't like us.
Nope, they just WENT.
In going, they found Jesus.
We aren't told exactly what they did when they reached the stable, or cave, or lean-to, or wherever Mary and Joseph had taken shelter that miraculous night. Luke's account of Jesus' birth doesn't give us those details. Oh to have been a fly on the wall!
What we do know is that the shepherds went. IMMEDIATELY.
We also know they found Jesus.
And finally, we read that "after seeing him, they told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this child."
Going, finding Jesus changed these shepherds.
They couldn't keep the news to themselves.
They didn't care what other people would think of them.
"The Savior is where? In a manager?"
"The Messiah is a newborn baby boy?"
"You saw angels? Singing in the sky?"
"God sent angels to YOU?"
"You want me to believe you, a shepherd? Who went and made you so important?"
Shepherds weren't the most highly regarded people in Jesus' day.
More like somewhere on the bottom of the totem pole.
YET, God sent the angels to them.
These lowly shepherds were the FIRST to know of Jesus' birth, the FIRST to be invited to come and see Jesus, and the FIRST to spread the good news.
Yes, we could definitely learn from the shepherds this Christmas...
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