Tag: Christmas

Poor in Spirit

How many times have you walked by someone who was down and out? Maybe they were dirty and living on the streets or so destitute they looked different than you. When the angel appeared the shepherds in the field the night of Christ’s birth, it was God’s way of showing that He came for those poor in spirit.

Luke 2:8-9

And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.  And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear.

Shepherds were looked down upon in the Jewish community. They were dirty from their work, gone a long time, and always ceremonially unclean so that they couldn’t worship at the temple. Any good and respectable Jew would hire a shepherd to watch their sheep. So the fact that God revealed His glory to them out in the fields and bot peculiar and powerful. Peculiar because they were so low on the social totem pole, but powerful in that God shows He comes to those who are poor in spirit.

Call His Name Jesus

Have you ever tried to picture that first Christmas? Mary, away from her family, in a town she didn’t know, giving birth to her baby boy. With all of the census’s craziness making Bethlehem swell, there wasn’t a proper place for her to give birth. She was to call his name Jesus because He would be the savior of the world.

Luke 1:21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

Jesus was born to poor parents and in an unknown town. There was a celebration, but it happened to some unsuspecting shepherds out in the fields. How could the savior of the world be born in such humble surroundings? God wanted to tell the world that His Son came for everyone, from the poorest up. This should be a consolation to everyone who struggles. In a world that worships wealth, its savior came to the poor.