CHRISTMAS
WITH
DR. LUKE
BY
GLENN
PEASE
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1 AN ATMOSPHERE OF AMAZEMENT
based on Luke 2:8-20
CHAPTER 2 THE ANGELIC ANTHEM based on
Luke 2:8-14
CHAPTER 3 CHRISTMAS ANIMALS based on
Luke 2:1-20
CHAPTER 4 THE APPROACHABLE GOD based
on Luke 2:8-20
CHAPTER 5 CHRISTMAS BABIES based on
Luke 2:1-20
CHAPTER 6 THE COMPLEXITY OF CHRISTMAS
based on Luke 1:26-45
CHAPTER 7 CHRISTMAS IS CONTAGIOUS
based on Luke 2:8-20
CHAPTER 8 THE ENJOYMENT OF GOD based
on Luke 2:8-20
CHAPTER 9 A SAVIOR IS BORN based on Luke 2:1-20
CHAPTER 10 THE SEASON FOR SEEING
based on Luke 2:8-20
CHAPTER 11 THE SIGHTS OF CHRISTMAS
based on Luke 2:8-20
CHAPTER 12 CHRISTMAS SILENCE AND
SONG based on Luke 2:8-20
CHAPTER 13 CHRISTMAS STUFF based on
Luke 2:1-20
CHAPTER 14 CHRISTMAS TRIVIA based on
Luke 2:1-14
CHAPTER 15 THE WONDER OF
CHRISTMAS Based on Luke 2:1-20
INTRODUCTION
Dr. Luke
is our primary source of information about the birth of Christ. Without his
research and his Gospel we would know very little about the family and the background
of our Lord. In this series of fifteen chapters we will explore the subjects
that Dr. Luke calls to our attention. Some of them may seem trivial, but when
it comes to the greatest story ever told, nothing is too small to consider as a
valid subject for study. Each chapter is independent of the others. If you have
an interest in a particular topic you can go directly to that chapter.
Thanks
to Dr Luke, you will see that the Christmas message is one that covers a lot of territory, and is
filled with human interest topics. My hope is that by reading these chapters
you will come to treasure more than ever what God did for us on that first
Christmas.
1. AN ATMOSPHERE OF AMAZEMENT based on Luke 2:8-20
Human
beings love to be amazed and filled with wonder. That is why they travel the world over to see the 7 wonders of
the world and the million and more lesser wonders of God and man. That is why the constant craving for special
effects in spectacular movies that take us out of dullsville into a world of
wonder.
The
amazing is always popular. Back near
the turn of the century, Hodji Ali made his fortune by being amazing. In full view of the audience he would
swallow peach pits, pennies, rhinestone rings, watermelon seeds and a whole
series of small objects. Then he would
bring up specific items at the request of the audience. Like the great fish in the book of Jonah, he
could vomit for a profit {prophet}.
That was
merely a warm up. While his assistant
set up a miniature castle, Ali drank a gallon of water and then a pint of
kerosene. The drum would begin to roll
and he would spit out the kerosene in a
six foot arc across the stage, setting the castle on fire. Then with the flames shooting high into the
air, he would spit up the water and extinguish the blaze. The people loved it, for it was amazing, and
people love to be amazed.
That is
what the Christmas season is all about.
It is about being amazed. The
whole world, in shopping centers, is
changed to convey a sense of amazement.
The lights and decorations and colors are all changed to convey a sense
of wonder. We are expected to respond,
how wonderful, how beautiful, how amazing it all is! The world and the church cooperate once a year in an all out
effort to create an atmosphere of amazement.
It is
very Biblical to do so, for that is the spirit that characterized the first
Christmas. After the shepherds had gone
through the wonder-filled experience of hearing the angels and seeing the
Christ-child for themselves, they spread the word, and we read in verse 18,
"And all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to
them."
Amazement has three different levels very much like the three levels of
heaven. There is the atmospheric heaven
of the birds and the clouds. There is
the astronomical heaven of sun, moon and stars. There is the angelic heaven of all the heavenly hosts and the
Trinity. Human amazement begins on the
highest level as the shepherds are confronted by the wonder of the angels. But then the shepherds have to go back to
tending their sheep, and day by day the wonder of it all would begin to fade. The challenge for them and for us is to keep
the wonder alive and on the highest level.
Let's look at the three stages of amazement, for just being aware of
them will help us.
I. THE RESPONSE OF AMAZEMENT.
This is
the first and highest level where we are confronted by the mysterious and marvelous
and feel a sense of awe. Georgia Adams
conveys a common experience of amazement in her poem Evening Awe.
I am filled
with awesome wonder
on moonlit,
starlit nights;
Speechlessly I stand engrossed in
Such an
array of sights.
Like a rich black velvet curtain
The sky
hangs silently-
Studded with millions of diamonds
Shining so brilliantly.
Among the myriads of stars
Flung into
outer space,
The dipper so majestically
Appears to take its place.
Each whirling, twirling planet spins
Within its orbit there;
The silvery moon hangs deftly
Suspended in mid-air!
Ah yes, the spacious firmament
In silent
witness stands
To prove God holds this universe
Within His sovereign hands!
-Georgia B. Adams
We have all
been amazed at some time by gazing up into the sky. The wise men were more
amazed that usual when they saw the Star of Bethlehem. In that state of wonder
they were willing to give up a good chunk of their life to follow that star to
the Christ-child. When they arrived
they no doubt had the emotions of those who sing, "I stand amazed in the
presence of Jesus the Nazarene."
We see
an atmosphere of amazement everywhere in the New Testament when people
confronted Jesus. When Mary and Joseph
found Jesus as a young boy in the temple talking with the scholars, they were
amazed. When Jesus began to teach, the
people were amazed at His authority.
When He began to cast our evil spirits, they were amazed at His
power. When He healed people, they were
amazed and they praised God. When He
stilled the storm His disciples were completely amazed. The point is, there was an atmosphere of
amazement that surrounded Jesus and His ministry, and we read in Mark 9:15,
"As soon as all the people saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with wonder
and ran to greet Him." The
response of amazement was the normal response of men when they had an encounter
with Christ. The next level we want to
consider is-
II. THE RETREAT OF AMAZEMENT.
This
second stage is a lower level and is the inevitable direction we must go. Just as Jesus did not permit Peter to build
his three tabernacles on the Mt. of Transfiguration, and stay in that elevated
atmosphere of amazement, so He does not permit anyone to go through life in
perpetual wonder. The disciples were
often amazed at Jesus, but after living with Him for some time, they went from
being, sometimes awe-filled, to being sometimes, awful. They fought and bickered over issues of
pride, and lost the sense of honor it was just to be in His presence.
Judas
retreated so far from the glory of his first response that he lost the light
altogether. But nobody escapes the detour off the super highway of
amazement. That is just the way God
made us. The thing that amazes me is
how fast we can retreat from the atmosphere of amazement. Some years back, my parents visited us and
we took them down town to see the sights.
It was new to all of us as we saw the flowing water and trees, and all
sorts of plants inside a modern building.
It was truly amazing. But years
later when we returned to hopefully again be amazed, the novelty was gone. It
was a boring journey for the atmosphere of amazement had vanished. I experienced the retreat of amazement.
Amazement thrives on surprise and the unexpected. It has a hard time surviving in an
atmosphere where all is known. I
enjoyed the amazing surprises of the movie, Raiders Of The Lost Ark. But when I watched the film again on
television, I was no longer surprised by the unknown, and I lost a great deal
of amazement.
Earl
Stanley Gardner tells of the fascinating experience of a traffic officer who
was patrolling the highway one hot summer day. He found a place in the shade to
pull over and observe the traffic highway one hot summer day. He found a place in the shade to pull over
and observe the traffic. He saw a car which was acting strange, as a driver
drove slowly along a creek road leading to the highway. He got his binoculars
out, and to his surprise, he recognized
the driver as his next door neighbor. He observed him stop the car, and get a
bag out of the trunk, and lay it in the shade by the stream. He then got back
into the car and left.
The
officer was curious, and drove to the spot, and checked it out. He discovered a
mother cat and six kittens. He quickly picked them up and drove with his siren
blaring at high speed to his neighbors house. He ran around the back of the
house and put the cats on his porch. He never told his neighbor what had
happened, but delighted in hearing him tell others of the impossible story of
how his cat and six kittens beat him home, when he drove off to abandon them.
His neighbor lived in perpetual amazement at finding these cats purring in the
sunlight on his back porch. The point is, had the officer told him what had
happened, the amazement would retreat rapidly into oblivion. It was kept alive
by the mystery of the unknown
Children
are amazed at the commonplace because to them it is the unknown. They love it
for they enjoy wonder. A little boy was asked when his birthday was and he said
he didn't know. When he was asked why he didn't ask his parents he said,
"because I want it to be a surprise." Children long to be surprised
and amazed, and it is a mistake to tell them they are silly. You can bring
about the eclipse of wonder and the retreat of amazement by forcing a child to
move to rapidly out of the world of play and fantasy into the world of work and
reality. The retreat of amazement is sure enough without provoking it
prematurely.
We need
to recognize the reality of the retreat of amazement, so we can work at
counteracting it. Christmas and communion have this is common-they
are events which we repeat so often that they can lose their sense of wonder.
They focus on the two great events of our faith-the birth and the death of
Jesus. They are the beginning and the end of Him who is the Alpha and the
Omega, the beginning and the end. Because there is a retreat of amazement at
these events of wonder, we need to look at the third stage-
III. THE RENEWAL OF
AMAZEMENT.
The key
to wonder is to recognize that we only know in part, and we see through a glass
darkly. There is so much more to the familiar than what we know. We lose our sense
of wonder because we think there is nothing new. The childlike mind says there
is always something new. When I read
Dr. Paul Brand's book, In His Image, I realized how little I knew about the
wonders of the human body, and the fantastic intricate mechanism by which we
live and breathe and have our being. We
take it for granted, but there are few things in this universe more filled with
wonder than this body we live in. After
reading that book, I recognized just how true an insight St. Augustine had,
when he wrote,"People travel to wonder at the height of mountains, at the
huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass
of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars; and they pass by themselves
without wondering."
The
value of having children around at Christmas time is that they help you keep
wonder alive. We need, not only the
Christ-child in the center of Christmas, but we need other children around the
circumference of Christmas, for without child like wonder you lose a lot of
what Christmas is all about. Kenneth
Wilson wrote, "Take the wonder out of Christmas, and you take a star not
only out of the skies but out of eyes.
Take away the soft edges of wonder, and you wind up only with hard
questions. Take away the angels, and
you have to start looking for the angles.
Whatever else Christmas is, it is wonders response to something bigger
than life. Sometimes-and Christmas is one
of the best times-the secret is not explain, explain, but enjoy,
enjoy."
That is
what it means to be childlike. The
shepherds were adults, but they came in childlike wonder to behold the baby in
a manger. The wise men were adults, but
they came in childlike wonder to bow before the Christ-child. I see three ways to get on the road that
leads to a renewal of amazement.
1. Research-both shepherds and wise men said let's
go see. If you set out to see more and
never be content with what you know, you can renew your sense of wonder.
2. Retelling-like the shepherds, share the message
of Christmas with others. Just to get a
child to see the wonder of it all will rekindle your own childlike
amazement.
3 Remembering-the reason Jesus said to do this in
remembrance of me is because He knew the rejuvenating power of memory. We have all found old pictures that brought
back the emotions of the past. The past
is never over, for by remembering it you can relive it in the present.
The
wonder of Christmas is that God would send His Son into the world as a infant. We say you
don't send a boy to do a man's job, but God did, and the wonder of it is
that the boy got the job done. He did
what all of history failed to do. He
reconciled God and man. Gambling men
would have put their money on Herod or Caesar, and big armies, and big budgets
to solve the world's problems with evil.
But God used a baby to win this war of the ages.
In Alex
Haley's book, Roots, there is a scene where the slave Kunta Kinte drives his
master to the big plantation house. He
parked the buggy, and settled down to wait.
He heard the music of the white folks as they danced, but then he heard
other music coming from the slave quarters.
He got out of the buggy and went to the cabin, and there he found a man
playing African music. He remembered
hearing this music as a child. The man
had come from his section of Africa, and they talked of home and the past. That night when he got back to his cabin, he
laid on the floor and wept, for he almost forgot who he was and where he was
from. The music had rekindled his
memory, and he was restored to an attitude of amazement concerning his
roots. So, when we come to Christmas,
we are to look back and remember what God did for us through this baby he sent
into the world. We are to remember that
it was by means of this child that we gained the right to become children of
God. We are to make Christmas a time of
the year when we enter into an atmosphere of amazement.
2. THE ANGELIC ANTHEM based on Luke 2:8-14
Louis
Pasteur, the French chemist, was the first to suspect that man's major enemies
were invisible. He advanced the theory that all disease is caused by
microscopic organisms called germs. His theory was challenged because some
diseases like rabies produced no germs. He concluded that these particular
germs were just too small to be seen by the microscopes of that day. In other
words, he was saying some invisible things are more invisible than others.
Thirty years
later the Dutch botanist, Martinus Beijerinck, filtered out all the germs from
a diseased tobacco plant's juices, and yet the juice still produced the disease
in a healthy plant. He called this disease-causing liquid a virus, from the
Latin word for poison. This term eventually came to designate these smaller
than germs trouble makers.
In 1931,
bacteriologist determined that these viruses were smaller than the smallest
cells. They are so small they are on the borderline between something and nothing.
Yet these invisible realities have become one of the biggest issues of modern
times. Science, the media, the medical world and the masses all believe in the
reality of these invisible creatures. You would have a hard time finding a
person who is skeptical about the reality of the virus. Yet we live in an age
where millions are skeptical about the reality of angels.
The
small and invisible are acceptable, but the big and invisible are too much to
swallow for the doubter. It is too great a paradox to be large and still not be detectable to the
senses of man. It makes sense to be hidden in minuteness, but to be hidden in
hughness is illogical. And so, the non-believer writes off the whole world of
the supernatural, which includes God and His angels. Modern man is not
necessarily happy with this choice, however. Norman Gary in one of his novels
says, "you got rid of God and isn't it funny, something is still
missing."
There
are many Christians who also feel uneasy about angels. They have a strange
malady of angelophobia-the fear of angels. They are embarrassed by angels. But
Christmas forces angels on us, and there is no escape from them. They are in stores, on cards, on trees, on
TV, in songs, and most of all, in God's revelation of the Christmas story. Amidst this awesome avalanche of angels we
are forced to acknowledge them, and somehow assimilate them into our world
view. We want to look at the angels and
the Christmas story, and see just how relevant they are to the Christmas story,
and thus to God's plan of salvation.
The first thing we want to focus on is-
I. THE ANGELS APPEARANCE.
Verse 9
says, an angel of the Lord appeared to them.
You can find a lot of places where an angel of the Lord appears in the
Bible, but you will have a hard time finding a text where the angel of the Lord
is joined by a great company of the heavenly host. Angels usually operate alone.
They are messengers, and like human messengers they are loners. The messengers of ancient history were
usually runners who ran alone, and not in a group. The pony express did not send out a group of riders, but each
covered his territory alone. When God
sent His messengers from heaven, one was a great plenty to get the job
done. But here on the first Christmas
we see a very unusual event. The angel
of the Lord is not left to sing a solo, but is backed up by the greatest angelic choir that ever appeared on
earth.
John
heard this choir in heaven where they were praising God on their own turf. But never had anyone ever heard this angelic
choir on earth. Heaven's music is
breaking through the barrier between time and eternity, and men on earth are
hearing heaven's sound. The only other
record of their performing was at creation.
There were no humans in existence to hear them at that time. So their singing at Christmas is a once in a
history exclusive performance.
If some
great singing group stopped their tour bus on a country road to sing for a few
cow-hands in the field, that event would make big news. Famous singing groups just don't do such
things. But here is the greatest
singing group in all the universe making their first earthly appearance, not at
Herod's castle, not in the temple, not in Rome, but in a field outside tiny
Bethlehem. There audience was not the
dignitaries of the nation, but a handful of lowly shepherds.
The real
wonder is that they appeared at all.
The fact that they did makes it clear that from God's point of view the
birth of His Son was the greatest event in human history. This angelic anthem was a guarantee that
this would be the most celebrated birthday the world had ever seen. There presence is just another factor in making
this a one of a kind event. Jesus was a
one of a kind baby, born to a one of a kind mother, for a one of a kind plan of
salvation. It is fitting that the
angels would at His birth make a one of a kind appearance.
Some say
the angels are not relevant. They
remind me of Whately who wrote about what he heard at the Grand Canyon,
"Turning away from the sun set serenade of gorgeous colors bouncing off
the Grand Canyon, a young woman said disdainfully to her companion, it just
isn't relevant." Whately had to
agree that from a strictly survival point of view the sun set and the Grand
Canyon are not relevant. Violets and
Orchids and most of the beauty of creation are not relevant to survival. But man does not live by bread alone. There
is more to life than food and clothing and money in the bank if that is what
you mean by relevant.
Man has
more than a body to feed. He has a mind
and a soul, and he needs a diet that nourishes the whole man. He needs mystery for the mind, and wonder
for the soul, and this is where the angels become relevant. Their presence in Christmas guarantees that
it will never lose it's wonder, for they add the supernatural touch. There is not much about Christmas that is
wondrous if you just look at the earthly scene. Stables are not known for their aesthetic value. The whole scene
is very commonplace and earthly. If it
was not for the appearance of the angels, the only sign of heavenly involvement
in this story would be the star. They
were the only living supernatural beings involved in the story. They keep it in the realm of wonder.
One of my granddaughters favorite songs is
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Some day
she will be able to sing the more scientific version-
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
I don't wonder what you are.
What you are I know quite
well
And your component parts can
tell.
That
loss of wonder will never happen with angels, because we can never analyze
angels adequately. They will be, until
eternity, a source of mystery and wonder.
That is their role in God's plan.
They keep Christmas a day of mystery and wonder forever. There was a good reason why God chose this
event for the greatest angelic choir ever.
Albert Einstein once remarked that, " the most beautiful thing we
can experience is the mysterious. It is
the source of all true art and science.
He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to
wonder, and stand wrapped in awe, is as good as dead: His eyes are
closed." The appearance of the
angels in the Christmas story assure us that there will always be wonder
connected with this awesome event.
Dr. Luke
tells us there were a multitude of the heavenly host. This was one of his
favorite words. He used it 23 times. All other New Testament writers only used
it 7 times altogether. He is making it clear that this was no trio or even a
sextet- this was a great multitude of angels. He was trying to make an
impression here. It was his style. He wants us to get a sense of the staggering
involvement of heaven in this earthly event.
Angels and archangels
gathered there
Cherubim and Seraphim
thronged the air.
This
never happened before, and will not likely ever happen again on earth. This was
the greatest angelic appearance of all time. And because it is so, it helps to
make Christmas the greatest time of wonder and celebration. Next, lets look at
-
II. THE ANGEL'S ADORATION.
The song
of the angels sets the tone for all others who come on the stage of the
Christmas drama. The angels adore Christ, and so we see the shepherds also
adore Christ, and so do the wise men. To adore is to worship with intense
devotion. Adoration is the key ingredient in the atmosphere of Christmas. The angels add wonder, but they
also lead the way in worship as well. There is no need to wonder about what
Jesus most wants for His birthday. There is no gift we can give better than
what the angels gave that first Christmas-adoration.
We may not have treasures of glory or gold,
Or
perfumes to pour at His feet,
But, oh, if we knew of the worth of the Christ,
We would
give Him our homage complete!
Our cherished desires we would open anew
And
yield Him our hearts and our all;
As incense we'd offer our praises to Him,
Adoring,
before Him would fall!
The Savior is worthy of all we can give,
Whatever our
coffers may hold;
Oh, may we then pour out our treasures to Him
And
worship as they did of old!
These
angels do not even need salvation, for they are not lost, yet they are praising
God for His gift as if they were part of the redeemed. This tells us a lot
about how angels feel about man. Unlike the unseen virus which only has an
interest in man's destruction, these unseen beings care about man and his
salvation. They are not jealous that God has given His very best for man. They
do not have envy, and fight the plan of God to populate heaven with these
fallen beings. Instead, they sing as never before, with pure adoration of the
love of God.
Angels
are our friends, and they are on the
side of light against darkness. We are not alone in this universe. There are a
vast host of intelligent un-fallen beings who care about our salvation, and
lead the way in praising God for providing us with a Savior. If you want the
true Christmas spirit, then listen to the angels. The very essence of Christmas
is adoration. We do not know what Christmas is until we feel the need to praise
God. To sing glory to God in the highest with the angels is where it is at.
This means we need to have received God's gift, and taken His Son as our
Savior. Only those who have done so can know the true spirit of adoration.
Giving
and being generous, and having a great time in spreading cheer and happiness
are all virtues, and we do not want to knock them, but we need to see they fall short of the real spirit
of Christmas. They are side effects of adoration. If you do not start where the
angels started your Christmas can never be what God intended. We need to
think-Glory to God. We need to feel-Glory to God. We need to sing-Glory to God.
Horatius Bonar wrote-
Glory be to
Him who loved us
Washed us
from each sinful stain;
Glory be to
Him who made us
Priests
and kings with Him to reign;
Glory,
worship, laud, and blessing
To the
Lamb who once was slain.
"Glory, worship, laud, and blessing"-
Thus the
choir triumphant sings;
"Honour, riches, power, dominion"-
Thus its
praise creation brings;
Thou art
worthy, Thou are worthy,
Lord of
lords and King of kings.
Glory to the King of angels,
Glory to
the Church's King,
Glory to the King of nations,
Heaven and
earth His praises sing;
Glory ever and for ever
To the
King of Glory bring.
Christmas means salvation to man, but it means Glory to God, and it is
never complete unless God gets adoration. If you want to give God the very best
you can give, then follow the angels and give Him adoration. We need songs to
adequately express adoration. Love songs are so popular because love needs
music for its highest expression. The loving heart needs a poem and a tune. Love
needs to be sung. That is what adoration is. It is love expressed in a song.
Phillips Brooks wrote long ago-
The earth has grown cold
with its burden of care
But at Christmas it always
is young,
The heart of the jewel burns
lustrus and fair;
And its soul full of music
breaks forth on the air,
When the song of the angels
is sung.
If the
heavenly host sang as never before, and they were not even saved by the Savior
they sang of, how much more ought we, who are saved by Him, be filled with
songs of adoration? Let us remember that the appearance of the angels tells us
Christmas is the greatest day of wonder in history. The adoration of the angels
tells us, the best we can give to God in response to His gift to us, is the
gift of worship and praise. Let us learn from these invisible friends that a
true celebration of Christmas will involve wonder and worship. This is the
message of the angelic anthem.
3. CHRISTMAS ANIMALS based on Luke 2:1-20
The angels, the shepherds, and the wise men, along
with Mary and Joseph, dominate the scene around the Christ-child, who gave the
world the gift of Christmas. But
animals also play a role in the greatest story ever told. Being dumb, they could not sing of it or
talk of it, and the result is their silence leaves them the most neglected
creatures connected with the Incarnation.
We usually look at the astronomical witness of the star, or the angelic
witness of the heavenly host, but we seldom to never notice the animal witness
to the advent of Christ.
There is
no escaping the facts, however. In His
birth our Lord Jesus identified with the animal kingdom. He was born in a stable meant for the
shelter of animals. He was laid in a
manger meant for the feeding of animals.
The first sounds baby Jesus heard could have been the sound of
animals. He was first announced to the
shepherds whose whole life revolved around the care, feeding, and protection of
animals. The wise men, who represented
the Gentile world, made their journey to worship Him on animals. They were likely camels, although horses
were not impossible. Mary likely made
it to Bethlehem riding on a donkey.
Later in His life, Jesus was in a context where He related both to the
angels and animals. Mark 1:13 says,
"He was with the wild animals, and angels attended Him." This was during His forty days in the
wilderness. Angels and animals have
this in common, they are both servants of God and man. They are both a part of the Christmas story.
The
result of all these facts is a world of
Christian art and poetry full of Christmas animals. The famous nativity scenes through the ages include the ox,
donkey, sheep, camels, and often the dove.
One of our most famous Christmas hymns, Away In A Manger, says,
"The cattle are lowing the poor baby wakes but little Lord Jesus no crying
He makes."
The
emphasis on animals in the birth scene is not part of our contemporary
life-style because the majority of people no longer live with animals. Back in the 12th century when everybody had
a daily contact with their farm animals, they sang songs that stressed the role
of the friendly beast in Christmas.
They sang,
Jesus our brother kind and
good
Was humbly born in a stable
rude
And the friendly beasts
around Him stood.
This
song, sung over 800 years ago by Christians, reveals just how carefully they
had thought through the role of animals in the Christmas story. They had each animal tell of what they
contributed-
Thus every beast by some
good spell
In the stable dark was glad
to tell
Of the gift He gave
Immanuel.
I said the donkey shaggy and
brown
Carried his mother uphill
and down
I carried her safely to
Bethlehem town.
I said the cow all white and
red
Gave her my manger for His
bed.
I gave Him my hay to pillow
His head.
I said the sheep with curly
horn
Gave Him my wool for His
blanket warm.
He wore my coat on Christmas
morn.
I said the dove, from the
rafters high,
I cooed Him to sleep that He
should not cry.
We cooed Him to sleep, my
mate and I.
I said the camel yellow and
black
Over the desert upon my
back.
I brought Him a gift in the
wise man's pack.
All of
this may seem superficial and sentimental to us as city people, but keep in
mind God did not send His angels to announce Christ's birth to city
people. He sent them to people who
lived daily in relationship to animals.
The Bible world was a very animal oriented world.
I think
it is safe to say, every great leader of Israel, male or female, had a life
strongly involved with the animal kingdom.
Look at just a few highlights.
1. Adam and
Eve dwelt in a perfect relationship with animals, and Adam even named them all.
2. All of
the Patriarchs had animals for their wealth, and the story of their lives could
not be told without reference to the animal kingdom.
3. Moses was
a shepherd when God met him at the burning bush.
4. David was
a shepherd when called to be the king of Israel.
5. Job was
an owner of great herds of animals.