Sometimes things happen that you just keep inside. It just bubbles out, whether you want it to or not, whether folks will believe you or not, whether it makes sense or not. You just have to tell it.
What would you have done if you were them? There you are minding your own business when suddenly an angel gives you this strange, exciting, somewhat terrifying news. What do you do next? Do you believe the words? Do you shake your head and say “wow that was a weird dream”? Do you continue counting sheep?

I suspect saying to my friends “Sounds great, let’s go check it out” would not be high on my list of preferred responses. I might go along with someone else who suggested it but would not likely suggest it. But that is what they do. In verse 15 someone starts the ball rolling and the shepherds go (with haste!) to check out the angel story. And then comes the real challenge.

You have had this amazing experience. Do you tell others? Well as I said above, sometimes things happen that you just can not keep inside. The shepherds had an experience of God’s presence. They had met God breaking in to their lives. The image I have in these verses is that they just can’t keep it in. I see them stopping and telling everyone they meet (whether the stopped people want to hear it or not) what has happened. Luke says all who heard it were amazed – he does not say whether the story was always believed.

So here is the question of faith…
What in our experience of God is so mind-expanding, so wondrous, so earth-changing that we have no choice but to tell everyone we meet what has happened? And what stops us from doing that?

If you missed an entry in our Advent devotions series, please click here to see all previously posted devotions.