Dear Shepherds:
I have to admit that your role in the whole nativity story blows me away. Absolutely and joyously blows me away. Seriously, who but God would charge a group of shepherds with spreading the good news of the birth of our Savior?
I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. God charged a lot of folk–the nondescript, the poor, the cast-off, the untouchable and the unequipped–to do His work. So the fact that he chose you to be His son’s first visitors fits right in with the rest of His narrative.
But still. What a bunch of men you must have been! Men whose hands had only known a hard day’s work, hands coated with dirt and wool wax, hands that gripped the gnarled wood of a staff, and hands who would quake as they reached out to touch the infant king. I’ve known others like you. Women who sat in the back of my college classrooms where they attended, day after day, to better themselves, women who had sent their children to school with cardboard in the bottoms of their shoes and who gave profound meaning to what it means to “make do.” Men with shattered dreams who were beginning again, men who had once lived in cozy ranch homes with two-car garages and swingsets in white-fenced yards and then had lost it all. Men and women who have served me food, cleaned the places where I’ve worked, stocked the shelves of the places where I’ve shopped, taken care of my garbage, my plumbing and wiring, cleared the roads I drive on–all of those people who work to serve. Like you, they are nobodies. And like you, they are truly somebodies.
For you see, there has always been much shepherding to be done. In lonely fields, in early morning stock rooms, after hours in hospitals, schools, and office buildings, shepherds work. And sadly, when we look down upon them and send our condescending words and pinched smiles their way, they go about the business of tending to whatever it is they are to tend. As they have and as they always will.
When the angels appeared to you, I’ll bet you looked away at first, believing the words to be for someone else, someone worthy and important. It is a mistake, you probably thought, certainly a huge mistake. For after years of fields and rocks and sheep, days and nights of wary solitude, you could not have imagined such a night as this. And on such a night, this is the part that really moves me: how wisps of air from angel wings softened your weathered faces, how the light of all lights flooded your watchful eyes, and how your hands flew into the night air, awestruck having taken on lives beyond themselves.
The fact is that we need shepherds today more than ever. Most of us simply need tending to. Because when our toilets break and shepherds show up with spud wrenches, pipe sheers and stem pullers, we stand back sorely amazed. And when we’ve scraped a night’s worth of ice from our windshields and find the streets plowed and salted, we count our blessings. Indeed, it takes a whole lot of tending to make the world go round.
So here’s to you, shepherds, tenders of wayward sheep! Take your place among God’s chosen. And when the nights are long and cold, take heart in this: we couldn’t have done it, and we still can’t do any of it without you.
From one who’s in constant need of tending,
Shannon
8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”
16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. Luke 2:8-20
