While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night

In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. - Luke 2:8 NASB

 Of all the things I love about the Christmas accounts, the angels appearance to the shepherds is among my favorites. The choice of God to herald Christ's coming to the shepherds gives us some valuable applications for the holidays.

  1) Shepherds were humble - Being with livestock all day was not a prestigious trade. Their work kept them out of many social and religious gatherings and they were solitary outcasts of "high society". This is exactly who Christ came to, and for: not who humanity views as the brightest and best, but the humble and needy.

  2) Shepherds were available - Far from the hustle and bustle of the city lights and the census hubbub, the shepherds were available and able to hear the angelic chorus, leave everything to go and see this Messiah who was born as a baby in Bethlehem.

  3) These Shepherds were special - Given the area of these shepherds were working in it was very likely that these were the very shepherds who would carefully breed many of the lambs that would be slaughtered in celebration of the Passover. They, who raised the lambs that were killed in anticipation of the Messiah would surely be interested in seeing, "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world."

 This Christmas season, I pray we may all be humble, available, and fully aware of the miraculous first advent of Jesus Christ on planet earth.