Glory to God in the highest realms of heaven! For there is peace and a good hope given to the sons of men.
His Eyes – Christmas Devotional Story
He was terrified.
Knee-knocking, heart pounding, bladder releasing scared to the edge of his life, and possibly, his sanity (which could not yet be determined).
What just happened? Was it an apparition? Was he dreaming? Did he drink too much wine with dinner?
He could barely tear his gaze from the sky that was moments before filled with a light brighter than the sun in full strength. It was like the night was sucked back into a blinding vortex of white revealing another realm that sat just beneath the surface, ecstatic and holy.
And terrifying.
Finally, he stole his eyes from the heavens and looked down at his tunic and feet. All seemed dry and he sighed with relief. Although, the sigh stuck in his ears like a wayward piece of straw and he realised that they were ringing, filled with a foreign sound that he couldn’t decipher.
He closed his eyes to the once again dark night and strained to listen, to remember the sound that accompanied the bright light… He knew it was sweet, he knew it was fierce and wonderful – terror laced with glory – but the words were beyond recognition, still captive to the shock that had settled into his bones.
His eyes opened with a start. Someone was yelling. There was a tug on his arm. Vision blurred. He rubbed his eyes hard with his fists and squinted into the atmosphere, shapes turned into men, lumps of white became sheep, and as sight and sound returned, he realised that they were abandoning camp. But not out of dread. Excitement and expectation? Like they were following something. What name could he give this feeling that he hadn’t had since he was a child skipping stones on the glassy surface of the river?
A hand reached out, grabbed his arm and pulled… An invitation. He started running with them. They jumped over rocks, they ran up the side of hills and down into shallow valleys. They ran and ran and ran through the night.
He thought of his sheep only for a moment, they were quickly forgotten, pushed aside at that foreign feeling tugging at his heart, calling his spirit, filling his imagination with wonder… and he ran on.
As light spilled over the horizon, the town came into view. The lead shepherd, his master, was up ahead leading the charge. And somehow, it seemed that he knew where to run, and they began to wind their way through the streets, passing slumbering houses and hearths stirring to warmth.
He was at the back of the group when it suddenly stopped and he couldn’t quite see where they had arrived. He tried to look through and past his fellows, but it became obvious that what had caught their attention was sitting below head hight.
As he stepped from the back and walked around his friends, a quickening raced through his heart and his breath caught in his throat. His heart pounded from the run, adrenaline pumped through his veins, his ears hummed with expectancy. He stepped to the front of the group and saw what had stopped his friends dead in their tracks.
At that moment, the words he had heard when he and his shepherd friends were assaulted in the dead of night by a blinding flash that filled the heavens began to fill his ears, like a song. Like a prayer.
“Glory to God in the highest realms of heaven! For there is peace and a good hope given to the sons of men.” Luke 2:14
He looked at the newborn cradled in his mother's arms, squirming with hunger, reaching for her breast with cries and coos, the father protectively standing above them, searching his small audience with his eyes…
He had no idea who this family was and what this all meant. He couldn’t begin to imagine why his band of shepherds were the recipients of an otherworldly announcement. All he knew was that this feeling warming his bones, stirring his heart; this foreign emotion that made him feel somewhat inflated, light and heavy at the same time, was somehow connected to the little life before him.
Bewildered and gobsmacked, the Shepherd dropped to his knees and prayed that he wasn't dreaming, that this wasn't an apparition or a case of too much wine with dinner. Whatever was happening inside him and in front of him (he was beginning to think it was something quite like hope), he never wanted it to end.
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