15 When the angels had returned to heaven,
the shepherds said to each other,
“Let’s go to Bethlehem!
Let’s see this thing that has happened,
which the Lord has told us about.”
***
(The angels go, but Jesus remains,
and the shepherds feel some urgency to find Him.)
***
16 They hurried to the village and found Mary and Joseph.
And there was the baby, lying in the manger.
17 After seeing him, the shepherds told everyone what had happened
and what the angel had said to them about this child.
18 All who heard the shepherds’ story were astonished,
19 but Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often.
***
Mary had good reason to meditate.
What brought her to Bethlehem?
A Roman emperor’s great decree and perhaps gossiping tongues in Nazareth.
God works through all kinds of people and all kinds of events to accomplish His plan.
David Gruzik
***
20 The shepherds went back to their flocks,
glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen.
It was just as the angel had told them.
(They “told everyone,” “glorified and praised God.”
Then went back to the work.)
***
21 Eight days later, when the baby was circumcised,
he was named Jesus, the name given him by the angel
even before he was conceived.
Luke 2:15-21 NLT
(Mary and Joseph were obedient to
both Jewish requirements and to God’s commands.)
***
“So God throws open the door of this world—and enters as a baby.
As the most vulnerable imaginable.
Because He wants unimaginable intimacy with you.
What religion ever had a god that wanted such intimacy with us
that He came with such vulnerability to us?
What God ever came so tender we could touch Him?
So fragile that we could break Him?
So vulnerable that His bare, beating heart could be hurt?
Only the One who loves you to death.”
Ann Voskamp