December 22nd, 2024
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Christmas Eve Worship: 2 pm, 4:30 pm, 9 pm All services have special music, Candlelight portion, and Holy Communion. 2 pm and 4:30 pm will have a children’s sermon. Come worship the Newborn King!
NO Wednesday worship December 25th or January 1st.
Office closed December 25th-27th
No Bible Study December 23rd or 30th.
No Voices of Praise till January 8th.
No Sunday School till January 5th.
MUSINGS FROM PASTOR BRAD
In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Luke 2:8
This will be the last “Musings” for 2024 and I want to thank you for reading and for those of you who share these crazy thoughts of mine with others. And I had a crazy thought pop into my head the other day as I thought about the story of Jesus birth. It is related to the verse above. We got the shepherds in the field, taking care of their sheep, as good shepherds do. Then those angels show up. Tell those shepherds about the birth of Jesus. And those shepherds go running into Bethlehem to see this baby. So my question is this: WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SHEEP? Because though we see sheep in our nativity scenes, those shepherds didn’t bring the whole herd with them. Impossible. So what did they do with them?
Did they leave one shepherd behind to watch them? If they did, I feel bad for that guy. He got to see the angels, hear the good news, but then didn’t get to witness the baby. That would suck. But it would make sense. I mean, good shepherds wouldn’t leave the sheep unattended.
Did they call up another shepherd? Like, “Hey, Jonah, over there, can you come watch our sheep? We just had an angel show up and tell us the Messiah was born and a whole choir of angels sang to us and we need to run into Bethlehem to check out this newborn king. You would really be doing us a solid and we will totally be there to help you out the next time you got a stray sheep or something. Thanks!” Did that happen?
Did they just leave them? I mean, sheep aren’t the brightest creatures on planet earth. It is not like they are going to just say, “Alright little sheep, just stay right here why we leave you to go check out a baby” and those sheep would just stay right there. They are going to wander. They are going to scatter. Who knows what is going to happen to them. Those shepherds are going to come back and they might get fired for losing those sheep. Or, in the best case scenario, at least have a ton of work trying to get them all rounded up.
Maybe they angels watched them. The shepherds left and maybe those angels just made sure those sheep stayed right there. We can’t rule it out, but don’t you think angels have more important things to do than babysitting some sheep? They got more songs to sing and messages to bring. But anything is possible.
Either way, I do know this: those shepherds were so excited for what they had heard, they took off, and I’d like to think that no matter, those sheep were taken care of. After all, we have a God who takes care of us, which is why Jesus is born for us. I think that no matter what, those shepherds found those sheep safe and sound, despite the negligence of the shepherds. God would have made sure of it. Because that is what God does: loves us and cares for us. No matter what. May you have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!