The Savior beckons...

"Let us go to Bethlehem"

Luke 2:15

School starts in a few weeks, and as a homeschooling mom, I have plenty to do to get ready.  Part of that is a whole lotta reading.  I need to make decisions on what I should have the kids read, but I also need to familiarize myself with the books I have never read ~ or haven't read in a long time ~ so that I can discuss literature with them while they're reading it.

So I've been reading a literature compilation for Amazing Boy.  It contains chapters out of classics, and also some poems and short stories.  It's fun to be re-reading things I haven't read since I was in school, but what I love more than that, is discovering something new.  There are even a couple of authors I never heard of, that are going to be on my Christmas list this year!  :)

Well, I've also read a few things that I don't think I'll be assigning to my kids.  One of these was a story that was new to me, about the night of Jesus' birth.  It's from the point of view of the shepherds, who were brought the glad tidings by the angels.   After the angels deliver the message to the shepherds, the shepherds naturally decide to hightail it to Bethlehem to see the Savior for themselves.

All except one.  This shepherd decided that since it was his job to protect the sheep, he was by golly gonna do it!  So all the shepherds went to worship the newborn Baby, and the one shepherd stayed home, and sure enough, he was needed to defend the sheep from a wolf that showed up that night.  At the end of the story, the reader is supposed to see him as a hero for being so focused on his job.

But that's not what this reader was thinking.  The Savior has been born!  Angels are giving you a message from God on high, and you're gonna stay with the sheep??   Yes, I think loyalty is a wonderful quality, but the alternative here is God!  I think this is a real struggle in this age in which we are living.  There are so many things vying for our time and attention.  Some of them are admirable, like a ministry or the pursuit of education.  But there's a fine line between loyalty to one's job, and being a workaholic.  And even a ministry can begin as a calling, but become a place for us to celebrate our talents, without any thought to His glory, or whether we're still even called by Him to do that ministry.

Jesus spoke to this in Luke chapter 9.  "He said to one, 'Follow Me.'  But he said, 'Lord, let me first go and bury my father.'  Jesus said to him, 'Let the dead bury their own dead; you go and preach the kingdom of God.'  And another also said, 'Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.'  But Jesus said to him, 'No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.' "

We each have to make a decision.  If we are going to follow Him, we cannot look back.  We cannot be distracted by something else, no matter how important it may seem.  Is He more important than anything in your life?  Than anything??  When He calls you, are you going to choose the Savior, or your job?  The Savior or your schedule?  The Savior or a little more sleep?

When the shepherds returned from Bethlehem, they were glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen.  What awaits us, if we respond to Him, will have us praising Him, too.

~ "All who heard were amazed 

at what the shepherds said to them" ~

Luke 2:18