Are there people in your life that have showed up unannounced, or even unwanted? What about people who showed up in which their scent was unmistakable and overwhelming? Whether it was good or bad, you knew the moment they walked in the room!
Don’t answer out loud or point fingers if there are sitting next to you – that would get awkward.
I know our culture is no longer as much a, “Hey we were in the neighborhood, so we thought we’d just drop by,” but I’m guessing there are still moments in which it has happened. And in a world of body odor, body sprays, Bath and Body Works, and of course essential oils, I’m confident you’ve experienced this on a regular basis.
This is the circumstance in our Christmas story, and for our series, something that can’t go by without some attention. Mary had this baby, in a place where animals were kept and then, to make matters of scent worse, the first visitors were sheep herders. These guys were living in the fields – WITH THE SHEEP. You know they had a certain musk about them!
I went to high school with a girl who raised sheep and there was something spectacular about her, great personality and extremely kind, but she had a distinct odor. It was like the perfume she wore was morning breath with notes of livestock! GROSS!!!
This environment seems to have been a case for the corruption of the sanctity and intimacy of the moment. But it wasn’t. What was an instant formula for catastrophe, instead created a righteous nativity that we need to understand.
The God of heaven, the ‘I AM’ God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, of the Old Testament, is now ‘WITH US’ (Immanuel) in the New Testament. And He doesn’t just show up like a Greek god of mythology in gold and riches and power and shimmering terror. He makes his entrance in humility, and the FIRST people to see him besides his parents, are lowly STINKY shepherds. Here, in this nativity scene, we see God now as the “I AM WITH YOU” God who is accessible to the least and the lowest!
This is a miracle. This is THE message of HOPE. This is SALVATION for the world. This message is YOURS and MINE!
So, Merry Christmas, Heather! May you receive the unexpected message of Christ this Christmas. And as Mary “treasured all these things in her heart” may you do the same, regardless of the current scene of your life and smell of your world! (Matt 2:19)
#SmellsLikeSheep
#CatastropheToTheNativity
#RestoringWholenessOfLife
Brett
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