Let us go straight to Bethlehem then. (Luke 2:15)
The account of the shepherds in Luke 2 is one of the most well-known and recognizable events surrounding the birth of Jesus. There they were, keeping watch over their flocks by night, when suddenly the glory of heaven shone all around them accompanied by the marvelous revelation that a savior had been born in the City of David. We all know how it goes. It’s an amazing story that has been forever memorialized in every nativity crèche ever made. But I happen to think that the story of the shepherds is about so much more than a heart-warming story. I believe that the events concerning these unsuspecting individuals are a picture of every single person’s saving encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ.
All of us were born into darkness. We call it the “fallen” human nature, something Paul describes at length in places like Ephesians 2:1-3, 4:17-19, and, most notably for our purposes here, 5:8 when he says, “for you were formerly darkness.” The darkness he describes is life apart from God, who alone is Life and Light. Just as the shepherds were surrounded by darkness, we too were born in this world with darkness all around us and within. But at some point, according to the providence of God, a light has shone – whether from a loving gesture from a stranger or a crisis that gave way to the miraculous – and made us aware of the presence of a Savior. Like the shepherds, all who wish to meet him face to face must respond to this awareness and rush straight to him. Yet all who ever come to meet the Lord will find that he has first come to us.
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