“It’s the most wonderful time of the year!” Welcome to December, to Christmas, to gift-giving, to good food and to the Season of Advent. We celebrate His first coming and look forward to His Second Coming!
Have you ever wondered how the events of the First Christmas impacted the people of Bethlehem? We don’t know their names. Only a few characters are mentioned in the Gospels. But there were lots of other people all around that stable.
What about those blue-collar, rough-around-the-edges shepherds who were keeping watch over their flocks by night? Imagine them going home the next morning. “Honey, you’ll never believe what happened to me at work last night!” It’s a once-in-a-lifetime event to see angels singing from heaven! It’s the biggest thing that ever happened to those working-class men. A colossal celestial choir burst out in song, surprising and scaring sheep, sheep dogs and shepherds. The night of Jesus’ birth, shepherds saw angels and heard them sing. That night became THE STORY of their lives.
I imagine an old shepherd, many years later, still telling anyone who would listen about the night he saw the angels singing over Bethlehem. He would have told his children, their children and maybe even his great-grandchildren. Whenever someone else ever sang, that old shepherd would be thinking, “I’ve heard better!” I think he would probably see that night again many, many times, in his dreams.
Stories are powerful. Stories connect us and interpret the world for us. Author Richard Powers has said, “The best arguments in the world won’t change a single person’s mind. The only thing that can do that is a good story.”1 An article I read on Psychology Today’s website said that despite all our technology, “Our brains still respond to content by looking for the story to make sense out of the experience.”2
The STORY of Jesus is the Gospel that changes lives. And His Story is THE Story. When God was ready to redeem the world, He didn’t deliver a lecture or a political system, He delivered a Son, whom Mary laid in a manger. Angels sang to shepherds and a star beckoned to wise men. “For unto us a Child is born.”
When we receive Christ as our Savior by faith, we receive a redemption story. It’s a heroic tale, life-changing in every way. It’s a story worth telling, to anyone who will listen. What’s YOUR story?
Merry Christmas!
Bro Jonathan
1. Morgan Housel, “Best Story Wins,” Collaborative Fund (2-11-21)
2. The Psychological Power of Storytelling | Psychology Today
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