"And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified." Luke 2:8-9 Christmas is pause. We’ve all heard that expression ‘You can’t see the forest for the trees’. It literally means you’re too close to something to see clearly or with the proper perspective the whole of what’s happening. You're not connecting the dots, so to speak. You can’t truly experience the extraordinary and the miraculous moments in life going 90 mph either! Simply put, the faster you go, the more you’ll miss. The more you miss the less you realize you’re missing it so the faster you go. You don’t just miss the forest, you miss the trees too!
Pause   (pôz)  To cease or suspend an action temporarily.  2. To linger; tarry:3. To hesitate
In the Gospel of Luke it is important to the writer that we know it was shepherds who received the angel’s announcement of the coming of Jesus. Rarely will the Gospel writers include details just to add color or to romanticize the scene. Usually these details have a reason for being there. So I have two questions: what do we know and why should we know it? First, they were shepherds (duh!), but shepherds were considered low-lifes who couldn’t find any other employment other than sit out in the open country watching sheep eat, wonder aimlessly and make little sheep. Their mission was to risk life and limb to protect these ungrateful grazers who belonged to someone else from desperate carnivores. Theirs was a lonely existence with hours and sometimes days without human interactions. The shepherd recruiter was right when he told them “it’s not just a job, it’s an adventure!” Second, it tells us they were watching their flocks at night. They, plural, were out in open country not protected by a community. Night had brought perhaps several flocks together for added protection and to provide the shepherds a brief respite from the tedium and solitude and for a bit of human companionship and conversation. I wonder what they talked about? I suspect they shared a meal together, a few homesick stories about their families, and perhaps their plans for the future.  I also suspect they had a Jewish background, otherwise the angel’s announcement of “Christ the Lord” wouldn't have meant that much. It is to these misfits and to them alone that Heaven sent the Angels, God’s messengers, to proclaim the mystery of God’s plan, “unto you is born this day in the city of David a savior, it is Christ the Lord.” [Luke 2:11] Christmas makes a pretty bold statement very clearly to those who are ready, willing and able to hear it. Everyone says Christmas is a hectic time and I agree, but what a paradox. It is in the busiest time of year that God speaks to the shepherd in all of us, in the solitude when we're able to listen with the soul, in the pause of life when all the coming and going ceases and we can be still. Here's how you can put "pause" back into your Christmas.  Take time to read the story of Christmas slowly. Savor it as if a fine meal waiting to nourish your soul. Take time to be in the story, feel the excitement and fear of Mary, the compassion and concern of Joseph or the terror and delight of the shepherds. Take time to dwell on the story by asking questions of “why”? Why was Immanuel necessary? Why does God do it this way? Why is it so hard to pause?
 “Those who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, are as good as dead; their eyes are closed.” Albert Einstein 
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