God sent shepherds

I am compiling shepherd stories from Jesus' life to show that HE is the Good Shepherd. I decided to add the story of the angels appearing to shepherds to go see baby Jesus in the manger. Even though there is no reference to Jesus being the Lamb of God, a sheep, or the Good Shepherd, this story shows us that God sent shepherds to go find THE ONE who IS!  

A good shepherd will leave the 99 to find the one sheep not with the flock. Only this time, the ONE will be their GOOD SHEPHERD. 

I love that GOD used shepherds to be the first to meet Jesus and begin telling the world about the birth of God's One and Only Son. God knew their instinct of caring for sheep would kick in and they would have to go and search out to see if this was true! 

Guess what? They found Him exactly as it was prophesied, lying in a manger. What did they do? They ran and told everyone!

Treasure These Things

Listen here: The Angels Tell the Shepherd's about Jesus

Have you ever noticed how a baby can reduce the the toughest guy to the most gentle of man? I love this! Everyone loves a little baby! 

This irony should not surprise us especially when we discover that God chose shepherds to be the first to welcome the Lamb of God, Messiah! 

If anyone was rough and lowly in culture it was a shepherd. Yet, God chose them to see His Son and tell the people the Savior has arrived. 

If anyone could understand the importance of a first born sacrifice, it would be a shepherd. They were the ones that cared for the mother and delivered the little lamb. They had to inspect it to make sure it was without blemish and then walk it to the temple for it to be sacrificed. Shepherds got it! 

And they were amazed! They ran and told everyone.

While Mary treasured these things in her heart. Little Hinley (5 years old, Anneliese Kliewer) summed it up beautifully, "Mary locked these things in her heart." When he heard the story he understood that Mary was not going to forget the beauty of her little babe being born and the rugged shepherds coming to welcome Him. Or that they declared that a host of angels sang over them as they watched their flock that night. Because an angel told both her and Joseph about Jesus. Jesus would be the Son of God and Savior of the world. 

Have you welcomed the beautiful baby Jesus into your rugged ole' heart? 

I have! Shalom y'all!