”And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”“
Luke 2:12 NKJV
The sparkle of Christmas just doesn’t go away does it? I looked at my baby grandson’s head and saw the glitter of the bows. I followed my glitter trail from my Christmas decorations all the way to the closet where I store Christmas and could have sworn I just vacummed there. The glitter is here to stay. Just like these posts of the first Christmas people. Their glitter and sparkle is timeless. Even the twelve days of Christmas have come and gone. I have heard it is not correct to wish people Happy New Year after the first week of January, but I am here to break all of society’s norms. As we begin the year 2024 I pray we reflect on these stories and happenings and glean all the knowledge and wisdom we can from their truths.
The stories from that first Christmas are a bridge from the past to the present. Scripture and the chapters from Luke and Matthew are like a present that keeps on giving. We just have to keep unwrapping.
The shepherds we find in Luke 2 are no ordinary shepherds. These were the Temple shepherds watching over the flock by night in the Bethlehem fields. These sheep were no ordinary sheep. They were the sheep to be used in Temple sacrifices and they were to be without spot or blemish. So for all their lives these shepherds would take a newly birthed lamb and wrap it in strips of swaddling cloth, and lay it immediately in a stone manger in one of the birthing caves in the hills of Judea. These swaddled lambs were kept safe from harming themselves or getting dirty or blemished. The shepherds had been trained since early in their lives. They knew the procedure by heart.
That was why the angel informed them “You will find the Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.” That was their personal sign. When they saw the baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in one of the mangers of those birthing caves, they knew, they knew this baby was destined to be a sacrificial lamb. And those swaddling cloths, well, customarily the shepherds used strips of used priestly garments. Jesus would have been wrapped in these strips. Again, THIS WAS THEIR SIGN. No one else in all of Judea would have been aware of God’s signature in the manger that night.
Lesson to carry in to 2024 – God knows you.
”O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, And are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, But behold, O Lord, You know it altogether. You have hedged me behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is high, I cannot attain it. Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, Even there Your hand shall lead me, And Your right hand shall hold me. If I say, “Surely the darkness shall fall on me,” Even the night shall be light about me; Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, But the night shines as the day; The darkness and the light are both alike to You. For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them. How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; When I awake, I am still with You. Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting.“
Psalms 139:1-18, 23-24 NKJV
God knows you intimately. He knows what sign to use to show you His Son. He is speaking to you personally. Can you hear His call and see His sign He has written out for you?
”To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.“
John 10:3-4 NKJV
I can only hear when I listen. To often I’m more interested in what I’m saying than listening to what He’s telling me. I’ve got to get to the point where I talk less and listen more.
Me too reflecting helps me