“They hurried to the village and found Mary and Joseph, and there was the baby, lying in the manger. After seeing him, the shepherds told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this child. All who heard the shepherds’ story were astonished…” (Luke 2:16-17)

“A miracle!”

Perhaps this is all the excited shepherds could articulate when they told everyone what they saw in the manger, but Luke doesn’t share the first Christmas sermon’s script, and maybe that’s intentional.

Who told you about Jesus for the first time? Some remember it well, and others not so much. Either way, it’s okay because that’s not the point.

It’s easy to think the shepherds were special because of the way they were introduced to the Christmas story. After all, angels appeared with the glory of the Lord! But consider this: if God made the night sky, is it so wild to think that his presence would fill it in a spectacular way?

Of course, what the shepherds saw was a miracle, and Luke tells us, “They were terrified” (2:9). It’s just that unfathomable glory can be expected when God speaks through angels.

Here’s part of what makes Christmas really miraculous: God didn’t have to keep announcing his Son’s birth through a chorus of angels. Instead, God spoke through a pack of misfit shepherds, who, history tells us, had zero social influence, and you still got the message. Go ahead and explain that without accepting what the shepherds said was true.

So maybe you had a life-shaking experience the first time you heard about Jesus, and maybe you don’t remember a single detail. The point is that you heard it, and just like the shepherds, more than 2,000 years later, God trusts you to tell the world about his Son. The story of Christmas – God became human – continues through common people like you and me.

Now, how could we articulate that?

A miracle.

Questions for reflection:

  1. How does God’s use of shepherds to share the story of Christmas challenge us?
  2. What obstacles get in the way of sharing our faith with others?
  3. What can we learn from the shepherds about introducing someone to Jesus?