By: Mike Kelly
Retired Pastor
Imagine that you’re at the altar of your church. You’ve been a faithful disciple for all your life. Serving God in every way you know how because you love Him.
So here you are, praying and praising God. Intensely lost in His presence. You feel a tap on your shoulder, and you turn around. Everything seems normal in the church except you’re staring at the kneecaps of an angel.
Gabriel to be specific. It’s clear no one else sees him but you do. He is right there in front of you. Imagine that you’re in bed and a bright light awakens you.
This isn’t a 60 watt light bulb. This light is so intense it shows through your eyelids. This is an impossibly bright light, yet it doesn’t blind you.
As a matter of fact, it seems to emanate from a very tall angel sitting at the foot of your bed. His first words are: “Don’t panic. You are very special, and God has very special plans for you.”
Imagine that you’re sound asleep when your dream becomes real. The man you are looking at is transformed into an angel. No doubt about that. Somehow you even know His name: Gabriel. You don’t know how but then; this is a dream.
And his first words are “Don’t panic. Just do what you’re told, and you will help to save the world.” Imagine that you’re out working in the back forty late at night when suddenly an angel of the Lord appears out of nowhere. His first words are almost scripted “Don’t Panic.
I’ve got some news you won’t believe and suddenly the sky opens and you’re seeing and listening to a whole lot of angels thousands upon thousands singing “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”
Imagine that you’re in your bed dreaming sweet dreams when everything suddenly changes and that Angel you met in another dream re-appears. He doesn’t say “Don’t panic’ which is probably a sign you should panic.
He’s just there to tell you to wake everybody up and take off in the middle of the night for a foreign country.
So, I ask you, how big is your imagination? Is it big enough to imagine an angel making the trip from Heaven’ throne room to earth?
How long is that trip anyway? Never mind, what’s important is what kind of person would God select for these roles? Certainly not just anybody or nobody like us. After all, Zehcariah was a priest. But that’s not as big a deal as it sounds.
There were about 1,000 priests in his section or “course’ and there were 24 courses. So, he was just 1 of 24,000 and his turn at offering incense in front of the Holy of Holies was just a matter of the luck of the draw.
He wouldn’t have been alone. A team of at least 5 priests would have been together to do this service. But only Zechariah saw the angel.
Then you’ve got Mary who is told she will be the mother of God. She probably was a religious young girl.
After all, how much trouble can you get into if you’re about 13 yrs old…especially in that tight society.? And Joseph is a solid kind of guy. A good guy.
He didn’t want to cause Mary any real trouble, but he knew he wasn’t going to marry a promiscuous girl who got herself pregnant. And as for the shepherds, they were probably not clean cut fraternity type guys.
In David’s time they were stockholders but by the time of Jesus, they were just illiterate, hired hands at the very bottom of the social ladder, right next to dung sweepers.
So, I guess they were a little like us. Certainly nothing special about any of them. As a matter of fact, they could be us if Jesus had waited a couple more centuries to visit.
However, the truth of Christmas is that we are them. When God showed up in a manger, he transformed them. And he is still transforming today.
Only today, instead of using shepherds and teen girls he’s using the likes of you and me. He’s expecting us to obey without question Like Mary and Joseph.
He’s expecting us to share the good news like the shepherds back then. The only real question today is: Will we? Will we explain the real meaning of this season to those who think it’s all about gifts and parties?
Will we put aside our selfishness to intentionally find someone who doesn’t know the real story? It’s not hard to find the uninformed today. Only 22% of Americans know the story of Emmanuel, God on earth today. You see right! About 1 in 5 can tell it.
The other 78% have little to absolutely no familiarity with what happened on earth 2200 years ago. Imagine that! Who’s Gabriel, will you be this Christmas?
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Mike Kelly is the founding pastor of Bryan’s Grace Community Church (retired) and Board Chairman of Bryan’s Sanctuary Homeless Shelter and Williams County’s Compassion (free) Medical Clinic.