Issue 369
Keep looking up
Many jobs in the western world involve not seeing the sky at all. Look up right now and you are probably looking at a roof or ceiling; no matter, you may just need to use your imagination a little more.
The context is work: several members of a team are on a night shift and have management responsibility for a bunch of sheep (no – real sheep). It is an ordinary working time and the conversation is likely to be mundane, and perhaps, even a little sleepy.
It is in this environment that a sky full of light and sound terrifies the life out of these employees until they get some sense of the event – which contains the announcement of an arrival, over an extraordinary sound system.
At this point, their strategy is to run down to the town over which they are looking and search out the subject of the sound and light show they have just experienced.
You know the story of the shepherds’ visit to the baby, but it was the baby’s impact on the shepherds that changed their world.
They went back to work praising God; they had a new energy and it inspired their whole being.
Genuine encounters with the Advent Saviour will send you back to work with new energy; the shepherds may previously have been tired, bored or cold, but not any more.
I can’t tell you how to manufacture a sky full of angels or how to hear the music or see the light; sometimes it just happens when you are doing your ordinary stuff.
It is always designed to get you to look again at Jesus, because that’s where the energy comes from.
So this Advent please enjoy the new dynamic, new management, new mystery, and new energy, and may God sprinkle his blessings on you as 2010 becomes 2011, so that you will know that he who brought you out of one year, will take you into the next.
Luke 2:8-20
8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests.” 15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” 16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured up all
these things and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.
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Work well
Geoff Shattock
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