Going Back Changed

They couldn’t stay at the manger forever.

After the running and the breathless wonder, after seeing the King of Kings napping in a rough wooden box usually reserved for cow fodder—tucked away in the back of a cow shed—the shepherds eventually had to go back to the fields. They went back to the same wind-driven cold and the same smelly sheep, but they went back as men forever changed, having seen the One sent by God to save men from their sins.

Treasured in the Heart

But Mary stayed put, holding every whisper and every bit of wonder in her heart for the difficult, uncertain times she must have expected ahead. She understood what we often forget: that while the celebration is loud, the transformation is silent.

We make a lot of noise today with the paper and the ribbons, but the real work of Christmas happens in that same quiet.

Returning New

Once you grasp the truth of His arrival, you still have to go back to work. But you go back as a new person. In fact, because sanctification is a daily unfolding, you return as a newer person still. We don’t just go back changed; we go back as people being continually remade by the One who arrived in that quiet.

“When the angels left them and went back to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, ‘Let’s go to Bethlehem. Let’s see this thing that has happened which the Lord has told us about.’ So the shepherds went quickly and found Mary and Joseph and the baby, who was lying in a feeding trough. When they had seen him, they told what the angels had said about this child. Everyone was amazed at what the shepherds said to them.

But Mary treasured these things and continued to think about them. Then the shepherds went back to their sheep, praising God and thanking him for everything they had seen and heard. It had been just as the angel had told them.”