God Speaks To All

I have written a short story, While Keeping Watch, that I am using for the season before Christmas we call Advent.  (Free download at www.thewellumc.com)  The premise of the story is that the shepherds watching the flocks is a family—a man, woman, and child. The scriptures do not tell us anything about the shepherds other than they were watching their flocks, heard angels, and then found the child. When they left the child, they praised God. That is it.

Scholars make the assumption that the inclusion of the shepherds fits the Gospel of Luke's emphasis on the poor. The shepherds of the time were mostly poor. Most of them did not own the sheep they watched. They were hirelings. No proud parent of the day would say, "When my daughter grows up, I want her to marry a shepherd!" Amazing how Jesus' teachings contrast with even the beginning of his life. He talks of the shepherd that is not a hireling but will lay down his life. The outcasts are the ones that God speaks to first!  How Jesus loved to show how different the God perspective of life is!

God begins with the ordinary folks that have no religious baggage and speaks.  God sends the heavenly messenger with the heavenly choir to speak to the shepherds in their ordinary place. How that contradicts how many would assume how and where God would speak. Surely God would choose the extraordinary person with many gifts and graces. God would pick an extraordinary place to give the eternal message of all time. No. God speaks to all—not just those who have the extraordinary.

I often wonder if others heard the messenger angel and heavenly chorus that night and shrugged it off. Maybe a traveler to Bethlehem heard them but was late for the reservation for the inn. Did another shepherd hear the voice and songs but went back to sleep? Perhaps the rabbi was awakened by the noise but discounted it because it did not fit the mold of prophecy.  Or did an ordinary person hear it and disqualify the possibility that God speaks to all?  How many times does God speak in our world but we are too busy to hear much less to follow?

The shepherd's life was a difficult one. It was a life that was filled with much discontent and discord. But God spoke. 

God speaks to all—what is God saying to you? 

Pray for me as I pray for you.