I wonder if the night before the incarnation of Christ the Son of God was a night when much of creation held its breath. Something enormous, something beyond momentous was about to happen. Something all creation was waiting for with groaning. The redemption of all creation was about to begin. The restoration of it all to the place it had been before the great rebellions of angels and humans that had wrecked it. Everything would be reconciled to our God because of this incarnation.

The incarnation was nothing short of an invasion by God into rebel-held territory. This perfectly timed yet seemingly slow rolling invasion was commencing. Did anyone except the Godhead know that this incarnation would upend everything in the unseen realms? That the defeat of all evil was beginning and the restoration would begin? That all sins were to be remitted and all people offered hope, salvation, and – gasp! – union with their God.

Did anyone have a clue that this incarnation of God the Son would include the eternal Son of God submitting Himself to death?

Whatever angels or demons, people or animals understood that night, it became clear that our God was on the move. And it was big. Never before had an announcement of our God’s plans been accompanied by an entire host of angels singing and praising God. Whatever this was to be, at least some were beginning to get the idea that was indeed this was unprecedented.

The angels had been busy in the lead up to this incarnation eve. They had delivered messages to Mary, Joseph, Elizabeth, Zaccharias, and even a few astrologers. And long before these messengers were busy, the Holy Spirit was prompting prophets to write things they did not understand. Things they nonetheless faithfully recorded and proclaimed. Messiah would come, they heard. “Shiloh,” the peace of God would come as a person. The serpent, Satan, would be fatally bruised. The virgin would conceive and bear a son. His name would be “Y’shua,” Joshua to the Hebrews, Jesus in Aramaic, both meaning “Savior.” As His name proclaimed, He would save His people from their sins.

Moreover, His name would be “Emmanuel.” To the Hebrews this name implied our God being joined to humans Spirit to spirit. To those who believed one could not see God and live, this name must have been most puzzling. But there it was, in Isaiah’s prophecy and repeated by the Angel of the Lord to Joseph in a dream.

The incarnation saw the angels coming in force to announce this amazing birth of Messiah and Savior to the least expected audience. For this announcement of our God becoming human so that He would then join humans into union with Himself, the angels came to shepherds.

These shepherds no doubt comprised all the scruff and ruggedness that accompanies those who live among animals on the margins of society. Yet they respond perfectly to the amazing spectacle that in all of history was seen only by them . “Let us go see this amazing thing the angel told to us!” The sheep for which they were responsible were left to tend themselves in their folds. The shepherds went – ran, probably – to the inn in Bethlehem to see this long-awaited Messiah. Christ the Lord, the very God of very God, incarnated right before their very eyes!

It is doubtful they fully understood what happened that night in terms of all creation and all eternity, but they were the first in all the outside world to see Emmanuel. God with us. Our God would finally be with – be within – humans again. Amazing beyond human comprehension.

No wonder they went on their way rejoicing!

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