While packing for an upcoming trip to Florida, I was busily scanning my book collection. My husband would be attending a conference, but I was to be blessed with “free time.” Hoping to experience a mini retreat by way of study and reflection, I prepared by inspecting book after book. Yet, my attention was drawn to a little form walking toward me. It was my youngest grandson, who is not quite two years old, toting a book in his chubby hands. He apparently pulled it from one of the shelves and with great determination, he delivered the book to me (Gram). As I read the title, I knew without a doubt, he was God’s little messenger boy!

The book was evangelistic in nature and stressed praying for the unsaved. Ironically, at the beginning of the year (2023), it was the direction the Lord pointed me. Regrets of opportunities missed began to surface. But as Christmas approaches, I know there is no better time than to be intentional in my “praying and telling.”

Our example? Some shepherds in the region of Bethlehem, out in the fields watching their flocks by night. Luke’s gospel in God’s written Word, The Bible, relays the determination and grit these individuals must have possessed (Luke 2). These men were not welcomed in the place of worship or even at their neighbor’s dining table. Yet, God gave them a message to take and share. And they did it, hastily: that very night! The Bible says, straight away, they came and found and saw with their own eyes. Still, they did not keep it to themselves: THEY MADE KNOWN! They went out telling everyone!

Consider these rough, smelly, outcast individuals God chose to use in His relaying program of the greatest happening the world has ever known: God’s gift to man: the Lord Jesus Christ, Our Messiah had come. Can you imagine the look on their faces?

 And they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby as He lay in the manger. When they had seen Him, they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child. And all who heard it were amazed about the things which were told them by the shepherds. And the shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them.

Luke 2:16-18, 20, NASB20

And I thought,

What do our faces convey?