Christmas

Babies are not found in mangers. According to Luke's Gospel, an angel announced to shepherds in the night that the long-awaited Messiah was born! They would find him wrapped in swaddling clothes and in a manger. The shepherds could've said, "This can't be. Babies are not kept in mangers." Instead they believed and they hastened to look for the stable with the baby lying in an animal's feeding trough. They hastened with faith.

When they did find him, as the angel had said, it was a sign to them that what the angel proclaimed was true - that this baby named Jesus is the Messiah, the Savior, the Lord whom so many generations were longing for. They returned to their fields praising and glorifying God for what they had witnessed: Mary and Joseph and the baby who was lying in a manger. 

Jesus was found at a time and in a place not expected by the shepherds. May we, like the believing shepherds, hasten to find him in our lives, even in ways we would not expect.