It's GO Time!

"Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹ And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. ¹⁰ Then the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. ¹¹ For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. ¹² And this will be the sign to you: you will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger." ¹³ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: ¹⁴ "Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!" ¹⁵ So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, "Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us." ¹⁶ And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger."

Luke 2:8-16

Christmas is the celebration of the divine revelation of Jesus Christ, the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us.  On a quiet night in the countryside of Bethlehem, angels proclaimed the birth of the Son of God to shepherds who dwelt in the fields.  What I find fascinating about this interaction is the angel says,  "And this will be the sign to you: you will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger."  The shepherds were never told to go to Bethlehem.  They were not commanded to leave their flocks or seek the child Jesus.  But with great enthusiasm and desire the shepherds said to one another, "Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us."  God had revealed Himself from heaven as a child in a manger, and they desired to experience His presence firsthand.  Verse 16 reveals their zeal:  "And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger."

Funny isn't it, how these men did something they weren't even asked or commanded to do?  The angel simply said, "You will find...."  He might as well have said, "Get up right now and GO!" by their actions!  The shepherds responded to the revelation not by putting another bundle of sticks on the fire, leaning back with hands behind their heads saying, "Wonder how this will turn out!"  They went immediately to seek their LORD and Savior.  Later in the life of Christ, He spoke in Matthew 7:7-8: "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.⁸ For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened."  Jesus extends to us an open invitation to ask, seek, and knock.  This is not an invitation for us to satisfy our own selfish desires, but to experience firsthand what God has revealed.  I must ask myself:  do I have that same enthusiastic response to seek God like those shepherds?  And if not, what is that thing which is so important that seeking God must be second?

These shepherds left all to seek their Savior.  No career, no relationship, no earthly goods, and no self-imposed responsibilities should keep me from seeking my LORD.  Sometimes we have this idea that God must command us to do something before we will do it.  The fact is, sometimes God will reveal something He wants us to act upon by simply taking Him at His word in obedience.  In this case, the men saw angels and were given a sign.  But it was a sign they had to seek, not for the sign itself but for who it pointed to:  the Son of God, born of a virgin in the City of David, our Savior Christ the LORD.  These men were not seeking revelation.  Their responsibility was to trust that revelation and live according to the truth of it.  My friends, this is the Christian existence summed up very well.  These shepherds made haste to find the Babe, widely proclaimed all they had seen and heard to everyone they met, and returned to their flocks glorifying and praising God.  May this kind of super-abundant joyful evangelism in the purest form mark my life and that of every believer!

What has God revealed to you, and what does He want you to do about it today?