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Did you know that when Jesus was born, people didn’t have the best opinion of shepherds?
They were these weird guys who lived out in the middle of nowhere in the desert keeping to themselves and taking care of sheep of all things. Sheep being these silly little animals that keep wandering off so that you have to keep leaving all the rest of the other sheep just to get that one. They are so hard to work with, so why would anyone be silly enough to want to make a life and career of taking care of such things?
And yet, these are the people the angel goes to. It’s not to kings or rich merchants that the angel visits. It’s these simple shepherds. And the message is that little Jesus has been born into this world to help save all of humanity.
If the angel was willing to send such a message to these strange and unliked shepherds, how much will God come to each and everyone of you, no matter how strange we may seem to others?
The truth is that God is reaching out to us all, just as Baby Jesus stretched out His arms to the world He came here to save. All we have to do is wait and listen. You never know. You may be surprised by what God comes out to say, just like the shepherds were by the angels on the first Christmas night.