Luke 2:17, 18, 20 - Stale Christmas?

January can leave people with a "Christmas let down." Decorations still on display have become a reminder to box them up. An half-empty bottle of eggnog that got shoved to the back of the frig has curdled. Favorite cookies and candy have been consumed, leaving lesser-loved treats to go stale.

Christmas doesn't have to go stale.

Consider the shepherds. They kept flocks in the fields outside Bethlehem. The Bible doesn't say they were guided by a star (like the magi). After all, they probably had homes in town and started knocking on doors of neighbors and friends. "Have you seen a baby in a manger?" Being in a hurry, they wouldn't have time to explain the whole story.

Then...
"17 After seeing him, the shepherds told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this child. 18 All who heard the shepherds’ story were astonished ... 20 The shepherds went back to their flocks, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. It was just as the angel had told them." (Luke 2:17,18,20, New Living Translation, 2015)

It's easy to imagine that the shepherds retraced their steps back to the fields outside Bethlehem. On the way, they stopped to tell neighbors and friends the full story.

What do you do with a good story? You tell it more than once, sometimes even with people who've heard it before. When it says that they "told everyone what had happened," it was a story they told for the rest of their lives. The story never got old, never got stale.

In your mind, picture a Christmas card: a scene with shepherds at night. However, these shepherds have already seen the baby. They're back at work, caring for their flocks. But their lives are forever changed. There was no time limit on how long they continued to glorify and praise God. 

Lord Jesus, What keeps us from telling neighbors and friends of our joy in encountering You? Or rather, how you encountered us, and entered our world. Keep Your presence fresh in our lives so the story never gets stale in the retelling. Amen.

Illustration from https://campwyoming.net/blog/shepherds-never-told/