Jesus' Family Album December 25 Devotional

LUKE 2:8-12, 16-20 | ⁸ In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹ Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰ But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: ¹¹ to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹² This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.’

¹⁶ So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. ¹⁷ When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; ¹⁸ and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. ¹⁹ But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰ The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

The passage today brings together two surprising members of God’s forever family: angels and shepherds. Here are glorious sky striders, glowing with heavenly grace, and the nightshift laborers who herd sheep. The angels abide in heaven, the shepherds sleep rough on the Judean hillside. The angels access the throne room of the Almighty, the shepherds can’t keep the food laws and so are officially unclean, not fit for Temple worship. Shepherds are near the bottom of the first century hierarchy, angels high up on the chain of being.

But Jesus’ family has a new scale of virtue, a new way of understanding importance. The angels give the great good news of the Messiah’s arrival, the birth of the Savior, to the shepherds. They become the bearers of histories most important message. The marginal became valuable and indispensable.

How do you judge value?

Gracious God,

Help us to see beyond social standing, beyond power, beyond fame. Let us see and sense the holy, the true, the heartfelt.

Amen.