angel words

"And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night."

Luke 2 might contain some of the best-loved and most widely recognized verses in all of scripture. I love to imagine these rough shepherds around their little fire, jumping out of their skins when the sky suddenly blazed with angelic glory. And then the words that everyone had waited for since the beginning: "'Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.'" (Luke 2:10-11).

I've read and sung those words since I was a little boy, so I have to put some work into really feeling their impact. It's like a castaway on a desert island finally seeing a ship. It's like a POW finally being released. It's like a terrified mother finally getting a phone call from a runaway child. Only more so, much more.

For centuries upon centuries God's people had been tormented by evil. For all those hundreds of years humanity had inflicted suffering on itself by its own sin. The whole world, scripture says, groaned in it's misery, helpless victims. And now, finally, the beginning of the end. Or maybe the end of the beginning, if we're talking about our relationship with God.

All of the frustration and sadness and pain that I cause myself in my own total depravity had its answer on that night in Bethlehem.

If I can get my brain around that baby announcement proclaimed by the angels, then it's easy to join in their song:  "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests."