While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night
A lesser known Christmas carol is While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night . I don’t think I ever sang this one until I was an adult. Here is the first stanza: “While shepherds watched Their flocks by night All seated on the ground The angel of the Lord came down And glory shone around And glory shone around” What struck me this morning as I read the lyrics to this carol is that the shepherds were just sitting around doing their normal thing…Ok, they might not have been seated…The Bible is not that specific…but let’s assume they were sitting around, minding their own business watching their sheep and suddenly the angels appear. Suddenly God steps into their lives in a supernatural way. And they obey. They do what the angel tells them to do. They go to Bethlehem. I wonder how many times I’ve just been doing my ordinary thing in life and God has stepped into it, asking me to do something or directing me to do something and I have ignored Him. Granted, I haven’t had an angelic visitor, at least not that I know of, no glorious light shining around me, but there are times where I’ve read something in the Bible, had someone speak to me, or just felt a nudging of the Holy Spirit and….didn’t respond. I can learn from the shepherds and maybe you can as well. When God steps into our lives in a loud or quiet way, let’s obey…let’s do what He says. No one is likely to write a song about it, but let’s not let that keep us from being faithful and obedient!