Extraordinary for the Ordinary | Advent | Luke 2:8-20

In our Light From Darkness series, this is the only passage that doesn’t directly mention “light.”  Instead, the glory of the Lord shines.  Glory is the shining presence of God and this matters because Jesus has just been born—hence, the glory of God filling the nighttime sky.  Jesus is the glory of God revealed.  And of all the people in the world it is first revealed to, it is to ordinary shepherds.  It is a picture of grace that God reveals Himself to the ordinary and lowly (can we see our own lowliness?) and the message of the manger is a picture of the very nature of God where dominion and power are wrapped in the swaddling cloths of humility.  Christmas, then, shows us everything we really need to know about God: power and mercy, kingship and humility.  In this paradox, we are confronted and called to follow Him and do what the shepherds did—to go find Him and then pour out praise and worship through our lives lived for Him.