It was Samuel's turn to watch the sheep that night. He took this job begrudgingly; it was a horribly boring chore to him, no glory in it at all. He wanted to be like his friend Aaron - a blacksmith's apprentice. Now that was an exciting idea - working with fire and metal was a man's job. Not caring for sheep, this was insignificant - it affected no one.
He took a deep breath and looked at the other shepherds. They all were sitting at attention, making sure none of their sheep wandered too far. All of Samuel's sheep were asleep, and he was fighting sleep himself. "I cannot fall asleep again, father will have my hide." Samuel said aloud, while trying to keep himself awake.
"Samuel, one of your little ones is getting away," one shepherd yelled to him. He quickly got up to grab the sheep. "Toda Raba, Marcus!" Samuel said with the lamb in his arms. Samuel was grateful for the flocks being close.
Marcus shook his head and laughed, he remembered being so young and foolish. He walked over to Samuel and laughed out loud, "I have been your father's friend for too long to..."
Out of the corner of Marcus' eye he saw a man in white walking toward them. "Who..." before Samuel could finish, a bright light shone all about them. In fear they ran back to the others.
"We must protect the sheep. Come; let us gather in a circle to protect them." The men scurried around the flocks to protect them from this invasion.
Meanwhile, through all this action - the sheep did not move. A peace had come upon them. The bright light and stranger did not scare them, or move them. They stayed still as if under some sort of witchcraft.
Fear crept into Samuel's heart, "We are going to die for these ridiculous sheep!" Sweat poured down his face as his heart began to beat faster with the stranger getting closer. Out of fear for his own life, he shrunk behind Marcus for protection.
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. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord. And this [will be] the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger." (Luke 2:9-12)All the shepherds fell on their faces, praising God.
Then there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: "Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!" (Luke 2:13-14) The angels disappeared as quickly as they had appeared.
"We must go quickly," Marcus said, "We must see the Saviour." All the other shepherds agreed.
"But what about the sheep? We cannot take them all, and we cannot leave them here alone." Samuel said with concern.
All the shepherds looked at each other in agreement, "Of course! What shall we do?" asked one; "We must vote to see who stays," said another. "I will stay," Samuel said. "I need to show my father I am responsible."
All the men turned to look at Samuel. "Ha! I am not leaving my flock with him!" said one, with others in agreement. "Calm down everyone. We are not leaving anyone behind. We will take all the sheep with us. We are going to meet our Saviour, who wants to miss that? I don't think the sheep will mind seeing our L-rd".
"But...but, that does not make sense..."Samuel started to say; but Marcus stopped him.”What is wrong with you my friend? Do you not understand what just happened? The Messiah is here! Who cares about anything else?"
Samuel did not understand where his fear came from, so he remained silent. All the men gathered their flocks together and traveled to the City of David.
"I don't believe this. What are we all doing? What if this was not real? What if this is a trick?" Samuel asked himself silently. His father always taught him to believe in the Messiah coming, but this cannot be it - the Messiah would never be in a manger...would He?
The shepherds finally arrived to Bethlehem. "Wait here, I will find out about this Child." Marcus quickly ran into town to find the right place.
"Our Saviour has finally arrived!" The men started to dance and praise God again. "How do we know this is THE Messiah?" asked Samuel, "What if this is a trick?"
The other shepherds laughed, "Foolish boy! How could you say that?" asked one shepherd, "Were you not there tonight? Did you not see? Did you not hear?" The man did not wait for his answer and continued dancing.
Samuel made up his mind that he would have to see to believe. Marcus ran back smiling and laughing. "I saw Him....it was...no words can express...you must come....you must see for yourself." He led the shepherds to the other side of town.
Samuel had never seen Marcus like this before, and it worried him. Has this man been bewitched? Samuel said a silent prayer, asking for guidance - but heard nothing.
They arrived to a barn and Marcus turned to all and said, "Come meet Him. Come meet Jesus."
Samuel walked in to see a young mother and father staring wide eyed at them in wonder. He smiled faintly at the baby and stepped out. Marcus went after the boy, "What are you doing? You must meet Him."
"Marcus it’s a baby!" Samuel yelled out loud, “A baby! How am I supposed to think it’s the Messiah? In a MANGER? That cannot be Him."
Without a word, Marcus took the young boy by the elbow, "What are you doing Marcus? I am not going in there." Marcus brought him in. "Go meet Jesus."
Samuel kneeled down next to the manger and saw the Child. As Samuel reached down to touch the baby's face, Jesus grabbed his hand. Tears filled his eyes as he understood finally. "Messiah." was all Samuel could say as his eyes were opened. His King was finally here.
Luk 2:20 Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them.
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