joy: invest

Shepherds? Really?
That was the plan all along?

Ever think that there had to be a better way to let the world know about the birth of Jesus? I understand the fact that a massive text message would be highly impersonal and technologically impossible at that time, but there had to be some other way.

Shepherds were famous (or should i say INfamous) for their storytelling. Their stories were, at the very best, embellishments of the truth. It reached the point that a shepherd's testimony, even an eye witness account, was not admissable in a court of law.

And God chose them.
To share the good news.
To announce to the world that Peace had come.

While the shepherds were not highly valued by society, they played an important role in the economic and spiritual culture of their town of Bethlehem.

They raised the sheep that were sold for sacrifices.
They raised sacrificial lambs.
They "kept watch over their flocks".

As they are guarding the sheep, angels tell them that they have glad tidings of great joy...for all people. The angels have a message, they have the good news of great joy...and they tell the shepherds first.

Because the shepherds have already invested.

See, the shepherds know about sacrifice. They lay down their lives for their sheep. In this case, they would raise a lamb until it was fully grown and acceptable for sacrifice. They fed, protected, cleaned, led these sheep for years...only to sell them to die.

And we wonder why God chose the shepherds.
If anyone understood it...
if anyone "got it"...
if anyone invested...
it was them.

Because of their investment, they understood joy.
Because of their joy, they wanted to tell the world.

But their joy would not come without knowing what it is to sacrifice.

Many of us go through life never really knowing joy. We grow bitter when things don't go our way. We get bored when it is not how we want it. We start to call things mundane and irrelevant. We may be physically present but soulfully absent.

Because we have never known joy...
because we have never invested.

We think joy is found in victory.
I would say true joy is found in sacrifice...in investment.

That is why He chose shepherds. They had invested. They had sacrificed.

Therefore, they knew joy.