Day 18: Read Luke 2:19-21
Shepherds Hear About Jesus
Luke 2:19-21 states that Mary treasured these things (the words of the shepherds) and continued to think about them. After the shepherds told the people what they had heard about the baby, the shepherds returned to their sheep praising God and thanking him for everything they had seen and heard. Everything had been just as the angel had told them. When the baby was eight days old he was circumcised and given the name Jesus. This was the name given by the angel before the baby began to grow inside Mary.
The words of the shepherds were valuable to Mary because their words confirmed what she had already been told by the angel before she became pregnant with Jesus. Her son was really someone special and was indeed the Savior of her people. The words she treasured were God's truths that were being carried out through her son. God wants us to treasure His truth and to continue to think on the truth He has revealed to us that we might not forget. Truth has the potential to set us free, but the problem is that often we forget the truth in the thick of a crisis. Forgetting the truth causes us to become vulnerable and to even fall prey to the schemes of Satan. Take Adam and Eve: they forgot the truth about God and this caused them to believe Satan's lies about God, which had devastating consequences for all human beings. If Adam and Eve had focused on God's truth then we wouldn't have sin and our world would be a very different place. The reality is that there are consequences to our thoughts, or lack thereof, and that God desires us to be like Mary, thinking on the truth of Him.
This passage also reminds us that praising God shouldn't end after the moment or event that brought us to give praise, but should continue as we continue on with our lives. The shepherds left Jesus, but continued to praise God for allowing them to see and hear everything just as the angel had said. God didn't have to send His angel to tell the shepherds the good news, ultimately inviting them to share in this miraculous moment, but He did and the shepherds seem to have recognized the blessing God has bestowed on them. Their example of continued praise is one that we rightly should follow in our own celebrations of blessings.
Enclosed in this passage there is also a reminder of the importance of completing our part in fulfilling God's prophecies. The angel told Mary about the prophecy that would be fulfilled in her and told her that her son's name would be Jesus. God would take care of the pregnancy and would fill her with the Holy Spirit allowing her to conceive God's son, but Mary had to also do her part, which was to name the baby Jesus. If Mary had decided to name the baby Joseph or another name common in her family then the prophecy would not have been fulfilled. Granted, God could have established the completion of His prophecy is another way, but He prefers that we are obedient in our part. When God chooses to complete His will through our lives it is important that we then choose to obediently do our part that it would be completed.
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