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hristmas Eve always brings such beautiful pictures into our minds.There are the shepherds watching their flocks by night.There is the angel of the Lord coming to them to announce the birth of the Savior. Can you imagine the wonderful sound the choir of angels made? And don’t forget how the shepherds ran to find out what had happened! It’s such a beautiful picture! Where did you picture the angel? You pictured him in the air, didn’t you? I know because I used to picture him there too! The question is,“What does the Bible say?” St. Luke records that there were the shepherds, living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night (Luke 2:8). What’s next is amazing! “And the angel of the Lord stood near them and the glory of the Lord shown around them and they were greatly frightened” (Luke 2:9). Did you hear that? St. Luke records that the angel of the Lord stood before them. He wasn’t floating in the air over the shepherds. No, the angel stood—as in, on the ground. His feet were on the ground! He stood just like you stand. There is no better place for the angels to be than on the earth, for that is where Jesus is.The Savior of the world is in the city of David. He’s the baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in the manger. The Son of God is born on the same chunk of dirt that we live on. He’s one of us now—He cries, sleeps, eats, and does all the other things that little babies do. “No crying He makes?” No way! Lots of crying He makes! He’s that much like you. He came to earth for us, as one of us. Our sin is that we think that God and His angels are way up in the sky while we are on the earth. When we sin, which is all the time, we think there are things between us and almighty God that aren’t settled or that need to be settled by something we do. If we do the right thing, maybe God, who lives somewhere up there in the sky, will take notice of us way down here on the earth.
H I G H E R T H I N G S __ 12
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