The other day I was blowing leaves in my driveway with my 5-year-old son. And as usual, he was helping me out with his toy blower. And I decided to go over and surprise him with an opportunity to use the big blower for a minute. And the look on his face must have been similar to the one the shepherds had on their faces that night. The look of uncertainty, at first, but quickly replaced by an overwhelming joy and gratitude at the unexpected gift that they had been given.

I love the last verse in that story, “The shepherds returned praising God, and glorifying Him, for all that they had seen and heard, as it was told to them.”

The shepherds were not the most respected men in Bethlehem. If a shepherd came up to you in the street and said that God had chosen him to tell you the Messiah had finally come, and that you would find him outside of town, laying in a feeding trough, along with a teenage peasant girl and her Galilean husband….I guess today, you might just smirk and say, “Really?”

And yet, the Bible tells us that all who heard what the shepherds said “wondered” at it.

This literally is the story of the most important event in the history of the world being accomplished by some of the most unimportant people. And yet, it IS accomplished.

So, let us be like the shepherds, and like my son, let us receive and believe the gracious gift of God’s word with great wonder and excitement. And let us overflow with the gratitude of a child.

Really.