This past Sunday (December 5 for those wondering), my home church, Gateway Community Church had its last Seek First worship of 2021. I’d been to the others at our north campus, so I knew what to expect.
But then I didn’t.
When it comes to God and the Holy Spirit, I think maybe I should stop assuming I have the slightest inkling of what to expect. With that in mind, this is what I took away from a truly amazing night of worship.
Our Prayer Superhero—that’s how I see her anyway—shared the story we all know like the back of our hands; the story of Christ’s birth. The story of the Shepherds who left their flocks (their livelihood) behind to move with haste, and Wisemen who traveled hundreds of miles to see this “King” born in a stable.
As she was sharing, I suddenly had a thought about the shepherds’ part in this story.
I’ve been a Christian since I was five—We’ll leave my current age out of this—and have known about Christ leaving the 99 to seek after the 1 (Luke 15:4-7) almost as long.
But for the first time in my life something even more beautiful occurred to me.
In the story of the shepherds “keeping watch over their flocks by night” (Luke 2:8-20) it clicked for me that these shepherds were leaving their flocks to embark on a quest (not a side quest, but THE main quest…for my fellow nerds). They left their flocks to seek after “The One”…
“The Lamb of God”…
“The (Good) Shepherd”…
As Christ leaves the 99—his flock; those of us who believe and are safely grounded in Him—to seek out the 1—the lost; the believers fallen away from Him, and the non-believers who reject Him—the story surrounding his birth alluded to this promise from Christ by first sending shepherds seeking after “The One.”
This Lamb was not lost though. This Lamb was sent to be the Savior of the world.
Who knows, maybe I’m reading too much into this. But I like to think that the story of the action of the shepherds at the announcement of the birth of Christ was a precursor to the actions of “The Good Shepherd” in all of our lives.
The Random Musings of a Nerdy Christ Follower 