The shepherds journeyed long to Bethlehem to ‘see this thing that has come to pass’ (Luke 2:15). The setting of the first Christmas seemed to simmer with silent inaction and similar starry sights in the sky on that cold night.

You could almost picture fire lit to keep the first ‘Adventists’ warm, and Pots of leftover delicacies besides a cooking stone. There was nothing much to expect besides the mundane; the sun had risen and set just the same.

But while the shepherds are watching over their sheep at night, the angels begin singing, bearing the succulent news of a Savior.

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”

The announcement of peace startled the shepherds. What does this occasion mean?

The glory of God now manifest on earth was cause for both fear and joy (Luke 2:9-10). Israel from the beginning had been waiting for a Savior to redeem them from bondage and restore their fortunes in the land God gave to them through Abraham.

The Savior would be born in the city of David. He comes to save His people from bondage (Mt. 1:21).

This is December. Decorating lights don many New England homes this time of the year. It is the season of Christmas. As we drive through our quiet neighborhood at night, the beauty of these lights is breathtaking.

No angels are singing. Instead, businesses close, schools too. People travel miles to be with their families. But there is an apparent indifference to the story and significance of this season.

There is no anticipation for the Savior. For many, this is a time to exchange gifts with friends and family.

In Uganda, the most common denominator during this holiday is meat. Even those who could not afford this luxury on other days of the year sacrifice and save to have a bite. Also, many homes prepare to welcome their ‘bazukulu’ that they have not seen in close to a year.

It is a moment to ‘be merry.’

The shepherds, however, did not see this as vacation time. This Advent is not for them an opportunity to visit family or eat savory food they have missed.

Theirs was the substance. The angel announces a Person, not a thing. He proclaims salvation, rather than a feast.

Here we see the juxtaposition. The shepherds are perplexed about the substance while the postmodern mind seems content with the shadows.

Thus, our newspapers and conversations tend to focus on the material while missing the moral. We light candles and miss the light. We enjoy food and snub the real bread of life. We celebrate with family and overlook the invitation to join the family of God.

We try to find peace in physical activities, yet it is our hearts that are restless.

But the Core of Christmas is that unto us, and for us, a Child is born, the Eternal one has taken mortality on Himself so that we, mere mortals can find transcendent meaning, hope, and purpose.

His birth announces to us that we are made for more than Epicurean hedonism that relegates God to the peripherals of life. The birth of Christ reminds us that God is interested in what we consider ‘mundane,’ which is why He is born in a manger and not a palace and introduces Himself first to seemingly insignificant shepherds instead of the scribes.

But also, the story of Christmas startles us, like it did the shepherds, for different reasons.

For example, although we can understand a man who through heroics is deified, how do we take a God who would dare be born as a man? Though we fathom gods that curse and judge their enemies (as the Greco-Roman gods are often depicted), which God would die on the cross for His foes?

While others ascend to glory, Christ descended into greatness. Whereas in ancient mythologies men became gods, only once in history did God become a Man. His ways are countercultural!

You see, Christmas is the story of humility triumphing over the human conception of power. It is when strength serves weakness. It is when mercy triumphs over judgment without forfeiting justice.

It is when God descends the proverbial mountain to meet men where they are rather than let them find their way up the hill through their diverse concocted paths. Love has come down to us in the form of a helpless baby in a manger.

The core of Christmas is that the ineffable One has united Himself to us and assumed our humanity with the judgment and death it carries. He comes to heal and to restore. The journeys we take to see our kin ought to remind us that God took the longest road to reach us.

We must not seek meaning in physical things whose significance as well lies beyond them.

This baby Boy answers all human quests for belonging and family because He reconciles all men to God. He is the Son of God, whose unity with us makes us sons of God too as we through Him belong to God’s eternal family, for which our earthly families are mere shadows.

So, as we enjoy food this Christmas, may we remember that God in Christ invites us to the feast in His Kingdom for He alone is the bread that truly satisfies the hunger in our hearts that solid food does not touch.

May the candles we light and the decorations we erect point to the light and beauty in Christ who diffuses the fragrance of life into our mundane actions.

And for those who know Christ relationally, this Christmas is an opportunity to share the Gospel with our family and friends. After all, after meeting Jesus, ‘the shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them’ (Luke 2:20).