Christmas and the New Creationਨਮੂਨਾ

The Good Shepherd

Night had fallen over the fields of Bethlehem. The cold covered the grass, and a few shepherds kept watch over their flocks. They were ordinary men, used to silence and solitude — among the lowest in Israel’s society. And it was to them that heaven opened. A brilliant light surrounded the shepherds, and an angel declared: “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.” (Luke 2:11, NIV).

The message of Christmas was not given to the powerful but to the humble. Divine glory did not appear in palaces but in open fields. The most important announcement in history came to men who smelled of sheep. This is the way of the incarnate God: He enters through the back door of the world. What humanity calls marginal, God calls essential.

The shepherds hurried to Bethlehem and found Mary, Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. That simple scene was the center of reality. The Creator had become the Shepherd. The God of Psalm 23 now had human hands, a gentle gaze, and a voice. “I am the good shepherd,” Jesus would later say. “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” (John 10:11, NIV).

Christmas reminds us that God’s care is not distant but near. He does not lead from afar — He walks with us, crosses valleys with us, and shares the dust of our journey. The incarnate God redeems the ordinary: work, rest, meals, embraces. The shepherds’ field becomes an altar because the presence of Christ transforms the common into the sacred.

Listen for the voice of the Good Shepherd amid the noise of your routine. Ask Him to help you recognize His presence and holiness in the small moments of your day, so that your life may become an altar — transforming the ordinary into the sacred and filling the world with the light of Christ’s glory.