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December 19 
Luke 2: 15 – 16
15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”
16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.
It’s human nature to want to share good news, isn’t it? No matter what the news is, we want to find people we know and trust to tell about what has lifted our spirits. When Christ was born at Bethlehem, God wanted the world to know that the promised Messiah had come and he used a host of angels to break the news. We can understand that. But it still leaves us with a question.
Why the shepherds? What did they do to deserve the privilege of being the first to hear that a child had been born – no ordinary child, but the Saviour of the world. Perhaps as we recall the status of these men, their lowly standing, the disregard with which they were viewed, it is maybe tempting to think that the angels made a mistake. Did they tell the wrong people? Who were they supposed to tell that they got so muddled up that they told a bunch of men out in the fields far beyond the town?
Be very clear. Breaking the news to the shepherds was no mistake, but a clear indication from God of the purpose and intent of this child. The baby born in Bethlehem wasn’t there to be cooed over only by those fit to enter the presence of a king, but God come down in vulnerable form for all humanity.
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