"COME TO ME...."

After the angels appeared to the shepherds, the babe in the manger touched their hearts to "come to me". To the Wise Men, the babe in the cradle touched their hearts to "come to me".  Even in this present day, the babe touches each of our hearts. As a man he says to us "Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." (Matthew 11:28a,b; NIV).
He is still saying to you-you who has accepted you are lower than the shepherds; He says, "Come to me..." At the time Jesus was born there was no one considered lower than the shepherds. This had been their lot for years and they had come to accept it. But then one night, one night different from all others an angel came to them-them the outcasts, the ones considered too unclean to be welcome in God's temple and their hearts were changed forever.
You-you who has been provided with everything one could possibly want or desire but still has an emptiness in the very depth of your being, the Savior touches your heart and says, "Come to me..."
The Wise Men-ones who had everything provided for them, no wants, no needs--followed a star, a bright "light" and their hearts were changed forever.
You-you who is filled with such pain you don't think you can face another day-let the babe touch your heart as He says, "Come to me..." Come to the manger, look upon the One called Jesus, Savior, Immanuel, Most High God, Mighty One; let His heart speak to your heart and change it forever.
This Christmas Eve, let the babe speak to your heart, "Come to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest....take my yoke...learn from me..." Let him change your heart forever!!

LESSONS OF CHRISTMAS--SHEPHERDS

Ah!! The Shepherds. As mentioned in my first post of this series the shepherds would be equivalent to today's homeless. Some of Israel's greatest heroes were shepherds; Abraham, Moses, David, Jacob, and his son Israel. However, mostly shepherds were hired and were not very reliable. So why were shepherds the ones God chose to be the first to hear about His Son's birth? Maybe, by looking closer at the duties of a shepherd we can discover the answer.
It was the responsibility of the shepherd to move his sheep from meadow to meadow so they would have nourishing food to eat. The shepherd had to water the sheep and if water wasn't nearby, it was there duty to take the sheep to a well and dip a pouch into the well. If the flock was large, this could take many hours. He had to protect them from snakes that could bite them as they fed or thieves that might steal them at night or wolves wanting one for its evening meal. To protect his sheep, at night he would lay across the opening to the sheepfold literally laying down his life for his sheep. If a sheep was killed under the care of a shepherd, by law he was required to show proof it was an animal that killed him and not the shepherd. (Was Jesus referring to this law 33 years later when He told His Father, he had not lost one). Was God showing us what was expected of His Son?
It was the shepherds who were the first to spread the news concerning the birth of a Messiah, a Savior, the Lord. After finding the Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger (this identified where the baby could be found) they went and spread the word, telling everyone what had happened to them and everyone was amazed.   Paul tells us in I Corinthians 1:27, "But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak of this world to shame the strong." Was Paul thinking about the shepherds when he wrote this?
Or was God pointing us to the day Jesus speaks about when he says, "When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory. And before Him shall be gathered all nations and He shall separate them one from another, as a SHEPHERD divides his sheep from the goats. And He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left." The ones on His right will be blessed and the ones on His left will be told to depart from Him. For we know His birth point to His death, His death to the resurrection, and the resurrection to the promise of His return.
Finally, upon returning to their fields, we find them :  "glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told." That's a very busy, very eventful time for the shepherds. We don't have their individual names but as a group they probably performed the second most important act of the evening, they did as they were told; they obeyed. And because they obeyed every year we will read about them. Ordinary people who did extraordinary things because they said "Yes" to God.