Experiencing the Glory of God... Like A Shepherd

1 Corinthians 1:27

But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

Isaiah 55:8

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD.

Luke Chapter 2.  I’ve read it what feels like a thousand times.  Glory to God in the Highest, peace on earth and good will to men.  Heavenly hosts singing to shepherds.  Blah blah blah.  When I get to this part of the Bible, I start to tune the words out.  At Christmas pageants, my mind wanders while cardboard stars shimmer and people dressed in bath robes pretend to herd sheep.  Or they use real sheep, which leave messes behind in the auditorium.

                  My daily Bible reading took me to this passage way before the Christmas season, actually right after Halloween.  I read the passage and started to tune it out, until God gave me fresh eyes to His character, revealed in a message so familiar to Western Christians.

                  The chapter starts off with Mary journeying with Joseph to Bethlehem.  Verse 5 states he was pledged to be married to her, and she was expecting a child.

                  I know it is fairly common knowledge that Mary was probably a young teenager.  I have heard many times, too, that to be pregnant out of wedlock was a great source of shame in their culture, especially since her betrothed was not the father.  God wanted his Son to come to the earth and the first thing he does is chooses a young woman, who has no authority in that culture, to carry Him.

                  Not only did God choose a lowly member of society through which to work, He also orchestrated the birth to come at a time when everyone was going to Bethlehem so that they had to stay in a stable and place their sleeping newborn, the Son of God, in a manger.  There was no room for them in the inn; Joseph, Mary, and Jesus were not wanted nor pre-anticipated, and their lodgings had to be an afterthought-place normally used to house animals.  God not only chose to work in a woman, but he chose for Jesus's first hours a dirty, stinky place when He could have had the palace, if He wanted.

                  This chapter doesn’t stop there, either.  While God could have sent his heavenly hosts and glory to the priests in the temple, to the government officials in their houses, or the rich as they sat reclined on couches after an abundant dinner, God sent his angels in the night to the lowliest members of society—dirty, stinky shepherds living in fields.  Having experienced moments of God’s glory, it is amazing to me that God revealed himself in this way, to these people.  Having experienced sheep first hand, too, I can vouch for their stinkiness.  And yet, these stinking shepherds blessed the heart of God as they, in verse 20, returned to their fields “glorying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen.”

                  While the reading of this passage has long put me to sleep in Christmas services, the reading of this passage at home with the Holy Spirit has given me new eyes again for the incredible God that I serve.  As a Christian who has spent a long time in the church, it is easy to sometimes feel like God will choose you if you’re the most important, most visible person.  Or the most obviously humble.  Yes, He does choose us, proud or humble, but sometimes it is so easy to loose sight of the heart of God in the search for appearance and acceptance and visibility.  God loves the lowly and chooses to work through them—not those perfectly poised, established, reputable people that you would necessarily think of as God-material.  God likes to take the foolish things of the world and use them to shame the wise.  He likes to take the last and make them first.

                  I find this so encouraging in my own personal walk, as I am not the most popular person, nor am I the most devout, nor the most humble, nor the greatest.  Sometimes, I fall and have to repent, and many times, I just don't feel like God-material.  But God can use someone like me for His incredible plan—He has chosen you and I to carry His Son in our hearts and to experience the glory of God like the shepherds.  And that, to me, is incredible, this chance to experience the glory of God like a lowly shepherd.