What Were The Shepherds Thinking?

It is funny how our little traditions and ways of doing things are like the law. Our traditions are what we have to do or it is just not Christmas. Well, on that note we asked last week, what does God want us to think about when we think about Christmas. We looked at Mary first and saw that the Lord wants us to think long on Jesus, to significantly ponder Him. We think on Him until we know how to respond. Today we are going to look at the shepherds. Their story is quite different from Mary. Mary's thoughts are coming over a period of nine months. She is reflecting on the announcement of the angel Gabriel of her pregnancy, the virgin birth, and how the angel gave her fiance, Joseph peace about all this. She is reflecting on the conditions over the birth and the events that followed. So Mary's thoughts are coming at her over a period of time where she has an opportunity to think about each one. The shepherds' thoughts literally explode on them. They are at work, the night shift, when the sky opens and there are a multitude of angels. The shepherds are literally seeing Christmas fly at them.