I Bring You Good Tidings Of Great Joy

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.

The Laugh Heard Round the World

Joseph pushed the hair from Mary's sweaty face as he checked on her; the child was coming soon, if not now. If he didn't find a place to stay, she would be having the baby in the street. He continued to rush from Inn to Inn trying to find a place.

"No more room" was the constant reply. Fear crept into his heart as he tried to find a warm place. "Ahavah, please stop. I cannot go on any longer," Mary clutched her belly as the pain started again.

Joseph stopped the donkey right in front of the last place in Bethlehem. He went in to talk with the Inn Keeper.

"Please Abba, help me." Mary prayed silently as she waited for her husband to come back. The donkey became restless and started to move. Mary cringed at the movement.

"There was no room for us in the Inn, but the Inn Keeper had mercy and will allow us to stay in the stable for the night." Joseph did not like the location, but it was better than letting his wife be shamed by having this child in public.

He gently pulled the donkey along to the stable. As they reached the stable, a young slave boy came out to show them where to stay. "Please bring the mid-wife to us quickly. The baby will be coming soon."

Wide eyed, the young boy shook his head in obedience and ran to get the midwife.

Joseph bundled up the straw trying to make a decent bed; Mary couldn't help but smile at the care he took of her. After he covered the straw with a blanket, he helped Mary lay down. "They are starting again," Mary could no longer hold in her agony - she screamed out as the baby started to come.

Joseph not knowing what to do prayed; "Abba, please bring the midwife soon. I do not know what to do." Tears streamed down his face as he feared he would lose his wife. "Oh, Ahavah please, I cannot take this. Make the pain stop. I cannot take this!" Mary screamed out again as the baby began to show.

Joseph was shocked by the change in his wife's demeanor. He felt hands pick him up. He turned to see the midwife had come. "Thank..." but before he could finish she had pushed him out the door.

"She is fine. I will come and get you when we are done." She turned and closed the door. Joseph fell to the ground and did what he knew God would want him to do. Pray.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Make this pain stop. I cannot do this anymore!" Mary was distraught. This was not normal, it couldn't be. It hurt too much. "Something is wrong!"

"Hush child. Everything is fine. You will get through this as the women before you have." The midwife shook her head, "This was a young girl, and therefore she was going to be a complainer. This was going to be a hard night," thought the midwife."You must listen and do exactly as I say for this baby to be born. Everything will be fine as long as you do as I say."

Mary nodded her head and prepared for the pain. "Now when you feel the pain again, I want you to push." Mary did as she was told.

She did not hear much else, but she did feel that release. She tried to sit up to see her baby, the one to be called Jesus - but the midwife's slave pushed her to lie back down. Fear quickly crept into her mind; "I want to see him. I did not hear him. Is the baby okay?" she asked the midwife.

Silently, the midwife knelt down and handed her the most precious gift. A son. He fussed a little, but did not cry out loud. As soon as he was in Mary's arms, the world stopped. He looked at her and smiled. Mary could not hold back the tears. "Hello, Jesus. I've been waiting to meet you."

"I cannot believe this," said the midwife, "this has to be the first birth I have ever been a part of that the child did not scream out. In truth, it sounded like he laughed." Mary smiled at her, “It’s because he is special."

The midwife shook her head as she opened the door to let Joseph in: "Come meet your son."

Joseph ran to Mary's side. "Come meet Jesus."

Selah

Great Faith

There have been many stories of great faith; but only one sticks out in my mind. The woman who was diseased for twelve years.


Luk 8:43 Now a woman, having a flow of blood for twelve years, who had spent all her livelihood on physicians and could not be healed by any,

Can you picture her pain? This is how I saw it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Abigail was in tears, twelve years was way too long to have to go through this pain. She was always in pain. The nights were filled with her agonizing screams as she clutched her blood soaked sheets. Each day was filled with doctors doing awful things to her, in hopes of healing this poor woman. Pain was her constant companion.

With her money now completely gone; she had nowhere else to turn. No more doctors, no more faith healers. No more anyone - she was all alone. Her family and friends shunned her, believing she received disease because of her sin.

"I cannot do this anymore," she said in determination. Struggling to walk because of her pain, she went into the kitchen and picked up a knife. "I cannot deal with this pain! I will not be shunned any longer!"

As she went to kill herself, she heard voices. She turned to see her neighbors talking outside; she was overhearing their conversation.

"Yes, they say he is the Messiah," said one "He is doing great miracles amongst our people! Did you see Elizabeth? She can walk!"

"I heard he is coming to the village today, we must go out to meet this Jesus!" said the other.

She stood up and began to walk out to meet this man who they called the Messiah. "This man will heal me. He is the Messiah!" She tried to walk as fast as she could, but had to stop frequently because of her pain. "I must keep going, because he will save me. He will see me and have pity on me, and save me." Tears were running down her face - because of the joy she felt at meeting her healer and because the pain was getting worse.

She had never felt this much pain; it was as if her body didn't want to be healed. "I must continue walking, so that I can meet my healer."

As she turned the corner, she saw a large crowd of people. "It's Jesus," was all she heard over and over again.

She started to maneuver the crowds, trying to get closer to him. A strange thought popped into her head, "What if he is too busy? What if he won't heal me?" she quickly pushed that thought out of her mind. "All I need to do is merely touch the hem of his garment to be healed."

As she moved closer, she was over taken by him. She began to cry, there was something about him that made her think..."I want to be near him."

She reached out her frail hand and touched his garment...

Luke 8:47-48 ...came from behind and touched the border of His garment. And immediately her flow of blood stopped. And Jesus said, "Who touched Me?" When all denied it, Peter and those with him said, "Master, the multitudes throng and press You, and You say, 'Who touched Me?' " But Jesus said, "Somebody touched Me, for I perceived power going out from Me." Now when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling; and falling down before Him, she declared to Him in the presence of all the people the reason she had touched Him and how she was healed immediately. And He said to her, "Daughter, be of good cheer; your faith has made you well. Go in peace."