(Originally Posted December 22, 2021)
Luke 2:16-20 16 And [the shepherds] went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. 17 And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. 18 And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. 20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.
Christmas as a big annual celebration is something that we take for granted as something that has been around forever. However, celebrating the birth of Christ by gathering with close friends and family, giving gifts, and feasting together is only about 800 years old. For the first 1200 years of the Christianity the greatest feast or holiday, the holiest of days, was Easter. Holy week and the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus was the single most important event in the life of the church and the people following Jesus.
Then, in the 13th century St. Francis of Assisi declared that we didn’t need to wait for God to love us through the cross and resurrection. Francis intuited that it was God taking on flesh, his very incarnation set in motion our salvation. God became flesh—materially and physically. We didn’t need to wait for “Good Friday” or “Resurrection Sunday” to solve the problem of human sin, the problem was solved from the beginning. And thereafter, Christmas became the greatest feast and holiest of days in the Christian church, because as soon as God came to humanity and took on flesh himself, the solution was set in motion, from the very beginning.
And this is something the shepherds, the first witnesses, experienced. They were just living their normal lives and then experienced something astonishing. During this season we are reminded that we have a God that loved us enough that he sent his only son to join us in the struggle that is life on Earth. As you sit in awe and wonder at the glory of Christ’s birth, I hope it inspires you, as it did the shepherds, to tell people about the hope that you have, and inspire you to return glorifying God for all that you have seen and heard.
Merry Christmas!