It’s Christmas Eve, one of my favorite days of the year. Christmas day is awesome but Christmas Eve has that last little bit of preparation plus ALL of the ANTICIPATION (and of course Christmas Eve services at your local church).
Christmas Eve is also, at least in our family, THE day to reflect on God’s greatest gift to us. Tonight, we’ll tell the Christmas story, have a birthday cake for Jesus and this year, start a new tradition with a “reflections” ornament. That ornament will represent all the blessings that we can remember receiving this year. I’m really looking forward to it.
But there’s one thing in my mind that I can’t shake and in fact, I’ll be sharing it this evening with my family. Do you remember the first people who heard about the birth of a savior? The shepherds, right? We’ve all seen them in nativities and manger scenes, wearing robes and carrying lambs. Cute, cute stuff. But you know what? They were probably dressed a little differently than that. They were probably a little rough around the edges. Their garments would have been grass stained, dirty and perhaps torn. In fact, my image of them would be a lot closer to migrant workers coming out of the field after a hard days work or perhaps a mechanic after working on a car all day with his Dickies and blue work shirt covered in grime. These shepherds were working men. Blue collar of the blue collar. and after being visited by a host of angels went from their workplace to a barn to see a baby. These lowest of the working class individuals went to a crudely made building (0r cave) to see God’s only son.
What humble beginnings. What humility displayed by the creator of the universe. and Why? so that everyone, EVERYONE could realize that God did it for them, for us, for you and for me. “For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world but so that the world (everyone) could be saved.” – John 3:17
Dream about that tonight as you fall asleep. Your God loves you and wants a relationship with you. Christmas is about a gift. The greatest gift ever given and it was given to everybody.
Merry Christmas!
