I wonder if Gabriel was a communications major?

Here's some thoughts from Christmas time I thought I'd share.

Every year we read the Luke 2. It’s a tradition. We start out the morning by reading it and pr--ing. But I started thinking about how many times I’ve read over so many words that are packed full of information, of life, of details in my half-sleepy stupor? How many details did I skim over while my eyes were also skimming over the presents? How many sermons did I just halfheartedly listen to because I had heard the story so many times before?

It’s not until this year that I began to realize it. As I prepared to tell my students about it in simpler English words, I started re-reading the stories and processing it out. I wrote the little script/play for my students and it went well. As I was walking my first class through the stories, I realized how much of the story is missing when you just look at Luke 2.

What makes that night so monumental if you have no idea of what happened before? When the angels showed up to the shepherds in the field that night and said, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today I the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is C the [Ruler]…” I thought about it from my students perspective, “Great a savior… saving from what?” When He’s called “C” or Messiah (which was a vocabulary word for the day) what does that mean. This Messiah is an “expected deliverer” (translated into my English class – It’s a hero, someone to save them that they have been waiting on for a long long time.) I went onto think about and elaborate about this in class. The shepherds must have been flipping out. They had to be in shell-shock. This is the one they’ve heard about their whole lives that would come one day. This is the one their parents talked about, the one their grandparents talked about, the one their great grandparents talked about, the one their great great great great grandparents talked about. That one day, He would come. I wonder if at this point it was almost like a legend of, “one day he will come…but we’re not really expecting him” until BAM! The skies light up brighter than the 4th of July at the White House. They’re probably freaking out cause they’ve never seen really anything but a torch or small fire at night with their sheep and suddenly there’s this thing up in the air lighting up the sky saying, “that thing that you’ve heard about, that your ancestors talked about and kept looking for and waiting for, that hero that you’re waiting on, that deliverer, that savior, that messiah, yeah, Him. Yeah, He’s here. Now. The tide has just changed, the chorus of human history just entered into a new realm. There’s been a shift in human history, in time, in everything that you know what to function about, it’s beginning to change. The music that is played before the King shows up in all His glory, is starting to play. Wake up, get your clothes, on suit up. It’s happening now. It just happened. (which this in itself would have been the most fanatic news they’ve ever heard in their life, let alone how they saw it, but then to help them poop their pants if they hadn’t already they add in this part.) He is here now. What’s more? He’s in that city over there. The one that you’re close to. He’s in there. The future King. The future Savior of the entire human population is in that city that lights up the horizon over there. He’s in there. Right now, He’s a baby. You can go see Him. This is how you know it’s Him, when you find this baby, He’ll be wrapped in clothes (death clothes to be exact) and He will be lying in a feed trough. (which the shepherds may have wanted to laugh or question them at this point, that the future King is wrapped up in rags and He’s lying where cows slobber and horses chomp their food – but considering the fact there was an Angel telling them this – they could probably suppress their laughter) . Then the sky is filled with these beings (that’d be better than the African Children’s Choir showing up and singing a song with their sway on to you and everyone you know.) How could they not drop everything and book it to that city nearby? I wonder if they were out of breath when they got there because they ran to see Him?

I got to the end of the story as the wise men went home and I realized… this is just the pre-chorus. This is not the end of the story. This isn’t even the best part. I’m stuck here. I just built all of this up and there’s no point in having a baby like Him born to just have Him grow up. There’s no point in Christmas if there’s not an Easter. Why in the world would this baby be born? We talked all this time about the Hero coming to save these people, but not only the people in this itty-bitty little country called Israel, but also the rest of the world. For the Mega-Giants like China with millions of more people, or America with also millions of people, but not nearly as much – even these people. When the Angel proclaimed GREAT JO Y! to all people, all American, Jews, Israelis, Chinese, Japanese, Italian, French, Australian, Haitian, Moroccan, Muslim, South African, German, Russian,…. That this Joy (not happiness, but JOY) would be to ALLLLLLLL PEOPLE! This infatuation and throbbing Joy would pulsate through their veins is being told tonight! So how would He save them? What would He do? What would He say? What would this little Baby grow up to be? It’s almost frustrating, how much we “know” but don’t really know. I started to just go off in class and tell them the rest of the story and break down into the whole Good News and just overflowing out of joy and excitement about what is happening and what happened and go on… but I didn’t. I wasn’t sure how much I could have/should have… but one thing is for sure. I am definitely pumped for Easter!

After the Shepherds possibly busted through this wooden gate leading into the barn and saw Mary exhausted and laying back in the hay with her newborn baby in the feed trough next to her, and Joseph standing nearby looking with Love and awe at his wife and the new Baby Hero, after they came in and saw all of this, then THEY WERE FILLED with JOY and ran off telling everyone what they had seen and heard. “All who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them” – They went out with first hand experiences with Him and told them all that they saw and heard – they gave their eye witness testimony Him. – Ironically enough, it’s the same thing that that Baby later told us to do before He left. You’ll be my witnesses (eyes witness accounts, to go tell what you’ve seen and heard) It’s such a beautiful thing.

Just thought I'd share.