"Fear not," he said, for
mighty dread
Had seized their troubled minds.
Had seized their troubled minds.
Who are they? And why
would they fear? For those not familiar with the story of this carol, it is the
account in the Bible of shepherds encountering an angel of God, announcing
the birth of the Saviour in Bethlehem to them .
At this point in the carol, the angel had just appeared to them, ‘and glory
shone around’. So what to be afraid of? Aren’t angels, sort of, nice?
No. ‘Nice’ is not the
right word to describe angels. They are good. They are pure. They are helpers
of men. But they are also powerful and mighty, agents and messengers of God
Himself. They are supernatural beings involved in all of history, including
today, and they make appearances as and when necessary. So the fear of the shepherds
was not misplaced, yet the angel was quick to reassure them, and to herald the
Christmas news.
I don’t know how
comfortable you are considering the supernatural, but Christmas is all about,
as my pastor put it, ‘God breaking in’ to our world. These things demand deep
wrestling, but ultimately the choice is clear cut – we can embrace the
supernatural, or we can dismiss it as a trifle. But if we do the latter, we
throw away the wonderful hope that the angels, the incarnation and the virgin
birth tell of; to trade in Christmas is far too higher price to pay.
While Shepherd's Watched Their Flocks
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