The coming of the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

What can I give Him, poor as I am?

If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;

If I were a wise man, I would do my part;

Yet what can I give Him?

Give Him my heart. 

Christina Georgina Rossetti

One of my lasting images from a childhood on a farm was coming down stairs one morning to a wet and cold lamb being revived in the warming oven of our old Rayburn stove, with a pervading smell of wet wool filling the kitchen. Another early image was being pushed into the garden in my pram where a very large white sow would snuffle curiously around the pram wheels. We may not have shared our kitchen with the cows but we did share their flies! Even today in Rwanda the house and stable are often shared. So it is important to understand the Christmas story in its historical and cultural context, very ably done HERE. Jesus was born into the home of a poor but very hospitable family in Bethlehem, because the upper room (Greek: kataluma usually translated inn.) was crammed with guests already, they were squeezed in with the family into the communal living accommodation downstairs.

 As John says in his gospel, “the word became flesh and dwelt amongst us”. Remember this Christmas that Jesus came into the very midst of us, if you invite Him in, he is there, right in the middle with your family and friends sharing the feast, sharing in all the joys and all the sorrows.  

The shekinah glory had not been seen, since Ezekiel had seen it depart from the East gate of the Jerusalem temple, before its destruction in 586 AD. Revealed not to the priests in Herod’s temple but to humble, despised shepherds in the Bethlehem hills, who were treated to the most beautiful and terrifying revelation of the glory of God that has been seen. 

Calmed by the angel’s message they would have rushed down the hill into town to find the Saviour King, born in humble helplessness into a family home just like the ones in which they lived.    

They may have mused here was someone like one of them; could He be the servant shepherd, the one who would feed his flock like a shepherd; and would gather the lambs in his arms,
and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep; as Isaiah had prophesied in the fortieth chapter of his writings. Would He be the one prophesied in Jeremiah who would gather His flock still scattered in exile?

Jesus, however, was more than this, He was the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for the sheep, as He declared in JOHN 10:11-18 .

One of the little rituals I did as a child was to sneak quietly into the cow shed on Christmas eve to look at the cows who it was rumoured still knelt to the baby Jesus. Let us remember the living Jesus and invite Him again into the very centre of our lives.