Recently our very dear friends up in Alaska had a baby. The due date for the birth was the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Hubby and I waited in anxious anticipation to hear from our friends!
Thanksgiving came … and went.
And still no news from our friends if the baby had arrived.
A baby was coming! Obviously, the baby needed a welcome gift!
And since Alaska is cold! … and snowy! … obviously, the baby’s welcome gift must be a warm fleecy snuggle suit!
But we did not know if the baby was to be a little boy or a little girl.
Therefore, the warm fleecy snuggle suit we sent was white.
I included this notecard with the baby’s welcome gift. In the notecard, I explained to the little one that just like the sheep on the front of this card were all cozy & warm in their fleecy sweaters, so also they too could stay cozy & warm in their own fleecy snuggle suit!
And then the text came!! It was just a normal ordinary day, like any other normal ordinary day. It was late evening and I was getting ready to head to bed.
I glanced at my phone … and there was a photo! The baby was here!! He had come!! It was a boy!!
Oh joy!! I was so excited!! It was a boy! And he was here!
This is what Christmas is about! It’s about the birth of a baby! It’s about the long-expected announcement that at last, He is here!
Oh joy!! Jesus is here!
Jesus … the great King of Heaven has come to earth … born as a baby!
Late at night, just like I was getting ready to head to bed, the announcement came that the baby had been born!! Except … it did not come as a text message on a cellphone. It came as a brilliant, dazzling with glory, angel choir … singing the announcement! To shepherds.
Shepherds out in the field.
Shepherds keeping watch over their flocks of sheep at night.
Why shepherds??
Had the shepherds been waiting in anxious anticipation like hubby and I had been??
Jesus … the great King of Heaven, had come to earth … and the reason for His coming was so that He could be a “Great Shepherd” for all humanity who are lost in sin!
All humanity, throughout all of time, has been lost in sin! Wandering.
These sheep here are not consistently looked after or cared for by a shepherd. But rather they wander. They wander and roam all across their small island nation.
They wander across vast open tracts of land. They wander past fences, and across property boundaries. They wander down into ditches along remote highways. They wander out onto roadways … where cars speed along at breakneck speeds.
They wander unknowingly into harms way … stepping suddenly out onto the roadways from hidden unseen ditches.
Ewes are hit by cars … leaving behind little lambs with no way to receive nourishment.
Little lambs are hit by cars … leaving behind ewes with milk to give, but no lamb to feed.
(Tourists to this small island nation are instructed that if you accidentally hit a sheep on the roadways, please go to the nearest farm to let the farmer know. This way he can contact the owner, who can then make arrangements for the little lamb to be fed, or the ewe, with extra milk, to be given an orphan lamb to feed.)
All of humanity, throughout all of time, are just like these sheep! Wandering. Wandering in sin. Wandering into harms way without even knowing it. Wandering in sin … to their own death and destruction.
But Jesus! Jesus … the great King of Heaven, came to earth! He came in order to be the “Great Shepherd” for all of humanity who are lost in sin!
Jesus came to tend and care for all of us who are just like sheep! This is what Christmas is about!
“We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way.” – Isaiah 53:6
My dear friend in Alaska just recently sent me a photo of their adorable little baby boy in his warm fleecy white snuggle suit. The words of her text were: “The sweetest little lamb.”
Indeed, their precious little baby boy did look like a little lamb in his fleecy white snuggle suit.
This is what Christmas is about! It’s about the birth of a baby, who came to be a lamb … the Lamb of God!
“The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” – John 1:29
Jesus … the great King of Heaven, came to earth! He came in order to be the sacrificial lamb in order to save all of humanity who are lost in sin!
Christmas is about sheep! This little sheep here … this could represent you. You are a little sheep … wandering.
Christmas is about the Great Shepherd … Jesus Christ! … who came to take care of you, the little wandering sheep.
Christmas is about the Lamb of God … Jesus Christ! … who came to take the punishment of death that you deserve, so that you don’t have to die … but rather can live forever in Heaven!
Christmas is all about Jesus!
