Here we are, half way through the 12 days of Christmas.  Today I want to write about the shepherds in Luke 2:8-20. Two things stand out to me about the shepherds in the Christmas story.

First is that they were just going about their jobs, doing their everyday, same routine when God interrupted them. It is encouraging to me to know that God can connect with me anytime, anywhere, no matter what I’m doing. I don’t have to be on a spiritual retreat to hear from God, or I don’t have to be in a specific church service with a specific preacher speaking either.  In the middle of my ordinary, normal, sometimes boring life, God can speak and work.

Second is that God chose to announce the birth of His son to shepherds, who were considered fairly low on the social status scale in their society as opposed to the elite A-list crowd of that day. You don’t have to ‘be’ anyone ‘special’ for God to notice you or to speak to you.  This one is huge. I wish everyone would understand this point.  My husband is a pastor and he has had more than one person come to him over the years asking him what God is telling him that they should be doing about something in their lives. For real. People think that pastors, spiritual, or religious people have an ‘in’ with ‘the big guy’.

My husband spends a lot of time in prayer and studying the bible.  He’s blessed with the opportunity to spend a lot of time doing those things.  What I love is when he tells me that God spoke something into his heart while doing things like, cutting the grass or driving his motorcycle, or walking to pick up the mail. God is in the everyday, normal, sometimes boring things that are a part of our lives.

It’s the same for me too. Over the course of my life so far, my personal encounters with God have most often happened in the middle of doing some normal things like laundry, or shovelling snow off a driveway or rocking a crying baby late at night.

You don’t have to be somebody important in society, or be doing some ultra-religious task to hear from God.  But when He speaks, I hope you’re listening.

The shepherds heard the message delivered to them by angels and then they hurried off to find Mary and Joseph and Jesus. They were moved to action by the message from God. I guess that’s the third thing that’s standing out to me about the shepherds.  Ordinary guys, doing their ordinary normal thing, who were moved to action when they heard the message from God.

Listen for God in your life. You’ll never know when He’s about to prompt your heart or whisper something to you. I’m glad the shepherds heard the message that was meant for them that night and am happy for the blessing they received being some of the first to meet Jesus in person. You just never know what God has in store for your life each day.

So stick with the ordinary, everyday, normal things that are a part of your life, no matter if you’re a somebody, or if you think you’re a nobody.  Every person is important to God and if we’ll listen, He will speak into our lives too.

Be blessed.