Merry Christmas!

I wanted to share this short story with you.

Looking unto the Messiah Jesus,

One Clay Soldier among many
















“I’m just a simple shepherd…”


Peace be with you, my friend!

Can I have just a moment of your time?

Good! Good!

I want to tell you about the most glorious thing I have ever heard of or seen! This is a night that I will never forget. But before I tell you all that, I want to make it clear to you that I’m no one special. Nope … I’m not a leader like Moses, nor am I a prophet like Elijah. I don’t hold any place in government. No, I’m not a teacher of the Law … I’m not a scribe … I’m not a Pharisee. I’m just a workin’ man; one that takes care of his sheep on a regular basis. I’m just a simple shepherd. That’s right. “Bottom of the barrel,” as some may say. However, this doesn’t make any bit of difference in the sight of God, so I’ll just tell ya what I saw.

On this particular night my buddies and I were workin’, watchin’ over our flocks in a field. By the way, I had never expected something like this to happen to me. I was just goin’ about my regular routine of things. And you know what?, I never expected the true and living God, the Holy One of Israel, to make Himself known to mankind in such a glorious and wonderful way. His ways are not ours ya know?

Sorry, let me continue … Guess what I saw? … An angel of God! And not just one, a multitude! God’s angels are absolutely beautiful. Have you ever seen one? I never pictured them that way. I was way off … Anyway, angels. The first angel came upon us out of nowhere. And as if that was not enough to put fear in us, the very glory of the Lord shone all around us. We were soooo afraid! Have you ever read the Scriptures or heard them read before? Whenever God shows up, man cannot help but get on his face. That’s the very thing that happened to us that night. Truly, we were all humbled.

The angel said, “Fear not…” I guess we really needed to hear those words. We had to calm down from the fear and listen to the most gracious words we have ever heard … “Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people,” he said. Wait … before I continue, realize that these “good tidings,” this great news, includes you, it includes me, and it even includes the very worst of us.

And listen to this, this is the great news … “Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” Did you hear that? Praise God! Just as the prophets of old had written, in times past concerning the coming of Messiah, has come to pass in our very day, right in front of our very eyes! The Messiah we have been waiting for all this time has come as Saviour. He is here! He is with us!

Do you have any idea what He came to save us from? ... our sins. Truly, all of the ugliness and filth … all of the lust and greed … all of the hate and violence … all of the sin done in ignorance and even all of the blatant transgression … all of these things that we could not help ourselves from, the Messiah came to save us from. How gracious and merciful our God is!

Friend, are you familiar with sheep at all? If you know anything about them, you know that they are one of the most helpless of animals in all of God’s creation. Without someone to lead them and take care of them on a regular basis, they are prone to going astray. Without a shepherd doing his job, sheep tend to put themselves in sure danger of being hurt in some way or even killed.

You and I, my friend, and all of us, need to realize that we are just like those sheep. Every single one of us, just like sheep, have gone astray from the true and living God. But thank Him, because that is not the end of the story. We have gone astray, yes, but as one of the prophets said, “…the LORD has laid on Him (the Messiah) the iniquity of us all.” What we are completely helpless to remedy, our God came in to this world to intercede on our behalf. Messiah has come, as the Scriptures say, to “make his soul an offering for (our) sin.” This indeed is a Good Shepherd, one who would even lay down His own life for the sheep. One day you will see this offering, and all of the rest of the world will know about it. This offering by the Messiah, “the righteous servant,” as the Scriptures describe Him, would be the means by which He would justify many in the sight of God … Marvelous!

Let me continue … The angel told us that there would be a sign unto us. This sign would confirm all that he had told us. He said, “You shall find the baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.” Surely this would be a sign. It’s not very often that you find a baby in a manger. Well … it’s not often in any sense, it doesn’t happen. Animals, yes, but not a baby … especially not this baby.

You know how I told you about a multitude of angels? They showed up. Suddenly they appeared to us, spread across the night sky, after the one angel had given us the sign. I still can’t believe it. At one moment I was watchin’ over sheep, and the next I was watchin’ a multitude of the heavenly host praising God. You know what was so beautiful about them? Their appearance, yes, most definitely. But even more beautiful was their genuine praise to God. By their praise you could tell that they knew their God and loved Him greatly. And they knew that all glory belonged to Him: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men,” they said.

It is so important for people to understand that God’s will toward us is nothing but good. No one can say otherwise. And peace, true peace, can only be found in Him. Everyone who understands these things, acknowledging God for who He truly is, will give glory unto God in the very same way these angels did.

Well, when the angels left us, ascending up into heaven, we were filled with such excitement! We could not wait to see this thing that the Lord had made known unto us. Immediately we agreed with one another to go to this city of David, the city of Bethlehem. One of the prophets spoke of this small place, by the way, which is among the thousands in Judah. A ruler would be born here, and not just a regular person, but one who was from everlasting.

I don’t know if I’ve ever ran so fast, friend. We made haste to find this baby. It felt like time had slowed down; it took forever to get to Him. When we finally made it to the manger the angel spoke of (somehow we got there), we discovered that it was just as he had said. We found the child, wrapped in some swaddling clothes and lying in this manger! We found Him! His mother Mary and Joseph, his earthly father, were right there with Him.

Now what I saw concerning the baby really cannot be explained too well in words. All I can say is this … what I previously felt could never be approachable, the very presence of God, was now made approachable through the humility of the Messiah … Remarkable! Divinity and humanity meeting together.

All we could manage to do was bow down before Him in adoration. It was not that His outward appearance caused us to do so; it must have been the Spirit of God that witnessed of Him to us. We just knew within ourselves who He was. Our Messiah has come! And His name is Jesus. This is our Lord … This is our God!

Finally, once we had seen the child, seeing everything just as the angel had said, we went forth to tell as many people as we could find. My goodness, we were so excited! People need to know that the Messiah Jesus has come. We were on a mission, and we are still on that mission today. Actually, that is why I am telling you right now.

Later we found out that many wondered at the things we had told them. But Mary, the mother of the child, kept these things to herself and pondered them. What thanks and praise must have filled her own heart, for this Messiah would be her Saviour too.

As we returned to our homes, returning to our everyday lives, we gave glory and praise to God, because of the glorious things we had heard of and seen … and today we do the same. Friend, does glory and praise fill your heart? If He has made Himself known to you, and you have accepted Him, you know what I’m talking about.

But if you have not embraced Jesus as Messiah, please don’t just take my word for it, believe in the Lord. I’m just a simple shepherd … He alone is the Good Shepherd.

May He, the Good Shepherd, bless you!

And May He be the One to lead you and care for you continually!

Peace be with you!