June 10th

June 10th -- Luke 2:1-20 (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%202:1-20&version=NLT)

Jesus is born. Go read. Or, well, you probably know the story anyways.

We have the king of everything. Son of God. Son of the God of everything. Fully God yet fully man. He could come down here and rule like a king. Instead, he is born to a peasant girl as a feeble child. He's also born in a manger, where he slept in a feeding trough for animals. He could have been attended by nobles and kings, but instead his onlookers were shepherds. It's almost, really, fitting. He was first praised by shepherds (after angels, but talking human-wise here, shepherds came first) and he would go on to be the shepherd for every single human. He did not want to come down to be our king and rule with an iron fist like he could have. Then we would follow out of strict loyalty or even fear - or perhaps the hope he would take out our enemies. He came down instead as a 'nobody' - just a carpenter's son with a knack for religion. Why? Probably because then those who followed would follow because they wanted to. They would want to because they would believe he was the son of God. They would know he was the son of God not because he ruled like a rich king, or because he struck down people with lightning for sinning, or anything else like that. He wanted belief based on love, not anything else. So he came as one of us, to be loved as one of us by those of us who would have him. He is our shepherd and we are his sheep - we follow because we know he wants only the best for us.
That's all. God bless! Shalom!