Luke 2:20 The Birth of Jesus

The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

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The shepherds were very important people that first Christmas. They were the first to hear the Christmas message. They were the first to worship the Christ Child. They were the first to spread the news of his arrival. Yes, those shepherds were important people who did important things.

How, then, could the shepherds return to their sheep? How could those important people who had been visited by angels and had seen the Christ Child go back to living outdoors, taking care of sheep that loved to wander, and toiling at what the rich and famous considered to be an unimportant job?

Great things were happening, but the shepherds went back and cared for their sheep anyway-more gladly than ever. Life was different. The sheep weren’t the same and the job wasn’t the same, because the shepherds knew that God had fulfilled his promise to send a Savior-King.

Perhaps some in that group had given up looking forward to God’s promises. If so, they experienced an even more drastic change. Empty lives were filled with faith and joy in the Lord, and their joy overflowed into their day-to-day tasks and relationships. Faith helped them recognize that their job of tending sheep was a gift from God and doing it well could be their gift to him. The sheep had better care, the community had better citizens, their wives had more loving husbands, and their children had better fathers all because the shepherds had seen Jesus and knew that God was carrying out his plan of salvation!

The same is true for us. We can’t celebrate Christmas every day. We have work to do. But the knowledge that Christ was born to save us makes our work much more pleasant. In the past we may have found our work to be drudgery. But now we can see that our work, as humble as it may be, is a way we can thank the Lord for all he has done for us.

Prayer: Dear Lord, bless our faith. Make it grow, and help us reflect our faith in our jobs and in how we treat those around us. Amen.