Marvelously Mundane!

The Shepherds as Witnesses

 

By Will Witherington

Posted: Wednesday, December 21st, 2011

 

 

For years I have wanted to write down some of the devotional thoughts I have during the Christmas season.  My thoughts usually revolve around two ideas: First that the Incarnation was an "invasion" - heaven was invading earth; Second, there were witnesses that had various points of view regarding the Incarnation.  These short devotionals each day will look at the witnesses to this invasion – God, the angels, Mary/Joseph, the shepherds, the animals/stars, the wise men, me.

 

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The word “mundane” is defined in the English dictionary as:

 

        “Of or pertaining to this world or earth as contrasted with heaven; common;

          ordinary; unimaginative.”

 

It would be hard to imagine a more “mundane” job and life than that of a shepherd.  These nomadic workers sat for hours, even days in open fields and prairies watching what some would say are the dumbest animals alive: sheep.

 

It would also be hard to find a more contrasting group of people for the warrior-messengers to sound the call of the Heavenly invasion. Yet the Scriptures say that the angels proclaimed their message to “shepherds who were abiding in the fields keeping watch over their flock by night.”  They were told that they would find this king, this Savior in an all too familiar place: a manger stall!  These shepherds had put feed and water in the place that now held the Lord of Creation!  Could this really be?

 

Yes, it must be this way! At closer glance, this contrast is one of magnificent brilliance and reveals more about God and His heart than we might imagine!

 

This baby that is born on Christmas day is the Son of God, but he is also the Son of Man.  This baby is a king, yet he also has “no form or majesty that we should look at him” (Isaiah 53:2).  “For by him all things were created, in heaven AND on earth” (Colossians 1:16; emphasis added). 

 

The reality is that God loves his creation – all of it!  God is no respecter of persons, cities, heritages, education, employment, status, or power.  To God there are no little people or little places.  To God there is no such thing as mundane!

 

God’s choice to send his royal messengers to lowly shepherds shows us that it ALL MATTERS to Him.  From the highest angel to the lowest shepherd, this baby will unite them all!  The truth that Jesus is the Lord of Creation gives purpose and meaning to everything “under the sun.” As the lyric from the Christmas hymn "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence" reads:

 

          Christ our God to earth descended,

          our full homage to demand.