The Perfect Audience

Our Rotation this month is about Jesus’ birth with a focus on the shepherds and angels portion of the story. The Message version of the Bible describes these shepherds as “camping in the neighborhood.”

Hmmm… Camping… How about a family camping expedition in the living room? Pitch a “tent” (drape a blanket over some chairs), stuff the backpacks with snacks or maybe even hold a picnic! (Try something simple, like sandwiches.) Use this opportunity to talk about shepherds, ask some questions, and add some spiritual growth memories!

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Is it easy to stay clean when you are camping?

If you’ve ever been camping, you know how hard it is to be neat. You can image how hard it was for shepherds in the time of Jesus. They also probably smelled like sheep. And they had another stigma: in those days, shepherds were looked down upon. They were considered as lowly as a tax collector.

Yet these were the people who first heard the good news of Jesus’ birth!

And heard the news in grand style!
Tell the story of the shepherds and angels (from Luke 2:8-18) around your pretend campfire. (What is camping without a campfire!)

Why are shepherds the perfect audience for angels announcing the birth of the Christ child?
Why do you suppose God didn’t chose “important” people to tell first?
Who would you expect God to tell?

There is a momentous message in God’s choice of society’s outcasts as the first visitors he invited to see his baby son!

Have you ever felt not good enough to hear from God?

God’s gift of his son Jesus is for everyone, even you and me.

God sent his son Jesus as a way to bring people back into a relationship with God. Those who are young, old, broken, a mistake-making-mess, tired, forgotten, feeling unworthy… His message of love comes once again, perhaps as quietly as a sleeping baby or as unexpectedly as God’s glory blazing around!

Enjoy this video telling of our story from The Jesus Storybook Bible.

Photo credits:
Click here for info on banner photo (not visible in readers or email).
A young Bedouin shepherd boy by Ed Brambley from Cambridge, UK, who licensed this photo via Wikimedia Commons under a Creative Commons License, via Wikimedia Commons.
Campfire also licensed under Creative Commons, by Mike Davis.