OK-here are my excuses. I worked Monday AM, we skied to the cabin Mon PM and stayed until yesterday afternoon. I worked on Mom's Highlander and went to bed. So we missed a couple of days. Not to fear! Wait, what? That was a couple of blogs ago, right? "Fear not"? Oh, how soon you all forget! Back to it this evening.
Well, our shepherds did what the angel told them-stopped fearing and listened to an angelic concert put on in the heavens above them. So, what now? An angelic messenger had just told them that a Savior had been born not too far away. This was confirmed by the heavenly choir. Then.....check on the sheep? Make sure the kids (and the other kids) are OK? I'm pretty sure they had that already covered-you know, shepherds, right? Luke tells us that they said to each other that they should go to Bethlehem (the city of David) and see the thing the angel had said come to pass. So they went "with haste" the 2 or 3 miles (I'm guessing here) to Bethlehem and found the stable, manger and Mary, Joseph and the Babe.
The record is brief in telling us that "when they had seen it, they made know abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child".
You all have been out on a dark night, no ambient lighting (I'll wait while you ask your parents or older sibs. Or Sirilexa) and no flashlights. I wonder how starry it was that night, or if there may have been a bright moon. Were they worried about predators or bad guys? What we know is that they hurried-they "came with haste". When I was a kid growing up in South Salt Lake we would go "in haste" when a fire truck passed our street to see what was happening. We would use haste to get home when we were out playing and Mom called us for dinner (without the aide of cell phones...).
I'm sure our little kid haste was fairly pedestrian when compared with the shepherds hurrying to see this "Saviour, which is Christ the Lord". Their haste brought them to the place where they found the Child lying in a manger. I imagine they spent what time they thought they could worshipping this heavenly being become mortal. The best we got to see when we hurried to chase the fire truck-if we caught up with it-was usually some smoke coming from someone's incinerator or my friend's pigeon coop. Not much compared to seeing the Savior!
And what did they do about it? They made sure to tell everyone what they had seen. The world's first missionaries-witnesses of the Savior! Well, after all the angels and singing and stuff.
The lesson for me here? If there is something wonderful to find, like the Savior, I should go with more haste. You know we can find Him everywhere if we look. Then I should make sure I let others know of the impact such encounters have on me. Let my light shine so others know of Him.
I'll work more on my hastening and testifying.
No comments:
Post a Comment