It felt good to rest his weary feet. They’d been roaming up and down the endless hills since sunrise, leading their woolly charges to grass, water, and safety. Now the dusty ground felt luxurious beneath his tired bones. His brother might spend the evening gazing in wonder at the starry sky, but Hassan was a simpler man. A cool drink, the stale bread, and a patch of turf mostly free of stones. These were his comforts. Small sounds of settled animals. The smell of dust, sweat and sheep. This was home. When they went to town, people watched them suspiciously, or turned up their noses. Who needed them? Hassan liked it better out in the hills anyway, though it was lonely.
A crack of thunder made him drop his meal. A jagged line of light split the sky and a roar of sound pressed him down. It was like nothing he’d ever imagined. A high and wild song. Then quiet for moment. His heart was racing and his breath was short. A tremendous loud voice, terrifying, and yet seeming on the edge of laughter, spoke,
“Don’t be afraid! I have good news. God has come to dwell with you. Go and find Him!”
Hassan was simple man with little time for religion. Keeping his sheep alive and his belly filled was his business. But those words and that voice shook something loose in his soul. A longing he’d always had and could never name was suddenly a heartbreaking ache. He was seized with wonder and desire. He jumped to his feet and yelled “Come on! Let’s go!” No longer weary he ran like he had not since he was a young man. Down the long hills, and up again, and down again, his brothers laughing as they followed after. They knew where to go without knowing why.
They fell down in a breathless sweaty heap just outside a stable on the edge of town. They crawled into the dimness on their knees because they were already on the ground, because shepherds don’t mind the dirt. They saw a wonder. They received the light of heaven. It was wrapped in something as mundane and unremarkable as a baby wrapped in rags. A baby born to poor people, people who couldn’t afford anything better than the stable. They didn’t understand it all but they knew what it meant. The Messiah had come and He’d done something miraculous to them.
The message to shepherds, poor carpenters, young girls, wealthy scholars, and to us: “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.” Emmanuel, God is with us.