To Them

----You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger---
                                                                             Luke 2:12 NLT

Startling, this message was.
Shepherds working third shift. Those who have been shifted by society, by men, to the bottom rung of the ladder. These were the lowest of the low. They are much like those who reek of neglect, reek of want and need, as they shove their shopping carts heaped with the picked-over and the picked-up, through the streets, under the roads that are paved for the must-haves and the not-enoughs, in our own society. These shepherds, like our homeless, were the nobodies, the cast-offs, the refuse on the list of don't-think-about.
To them,the angel appeared.
And the radiance of the Lord’s glory, surrounded them. The worthless, the filthy-- these are the ones surrounded and cradled. Sung to and championed.
All for a baby, wrapped in humility and found among them. A baby, nestled in the stench of poverty, born into the darkness of the misunderstood and the cast-aside.
This was the “good news that will bring great joy to all people,” the message given to the hopeless, one startling night. A Savior. A baby birthed among the forgotten, to clearly communicate, “I remembered.”
These shepherds, they could recognize when someone cared, when someone was interested in them and not another “charity project” meant to make the giver feel better. When an angel bursts into the dark of their despair, heralding hope, their response was immediate. They RUN. “They left running...”
Running to God.
They had been remembered and now their emptiness, is filled. For it was to them, the Savior had come.
Startling.

Glory to God in highest, and on earth peace to men... Luke 2:14 NIV