By Annelise Jagitsch
“Get off my porch, you smelly, deranged shepherd! It’s the middle of the night!” Another door slammed shut. The small band of excited shepherds turned sadly away. Earlier that night an angel choir had sung a beautiful song to them out in the field and then told them to go look for a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. It was a strange command but the shepherds were excited about this baby just the same. You see the angels had also told them who this baby was. This was the king of the Jews! Baby Jesus come to save the souls of men! But no one seemed to be ready to welcome the baby king.
The shepherds continued down the street knocking on every door they passed. Not one person was excited by the news of the baby king they were going to see. When they would say that the king of the Jews had been born and was laying in a manger in their very own town, people laughed or became angrier. “Why did you knock on my door just to spout off nonsense?”
We all know the nativity story. We have heard it since we were tiny babies. But have we ever stopped to ask ourselves, would I have been ready? Have we asked ourselves, are we ready now? These questions are so important. Many years ago, the Jews were so sure that their Messiah would save them from the Romans that they didn’t recognize their need of a Savior. When He came they didn’t even accept Him. They weren’t ready to meet Him. They wouldn’t even acknowledge that He was their King. A few shepherds tending sheep in a field were ready and some wise men from a totally different part of the world were ready. But the Jews were totally unprepared.
Are we like that today? If Jesus came tomorrow would we be ready? Have we done everything we can to help those around us be ready? Unfortunately, the answer to these questions is probably a resounding “no”. Today people spend more money on Halloween costumes for their pets than they do on missions to the unreached. That’s sad. God gave us life and a chance for something better and bigger than ourselves but we are often so self-involved that we don’t even stop to care about those who don’t know God. So no, we are not ready for Jesus to come back. We haven’t done our part. We haven’t gone out and loved the people around us. We haven’t shared Jesus with mankind.
If you recognize that you have been living for yourself, without a heart for the lost around you, will you choose to make a change today? Tell God you want to live for Him and be ready to go and do what He asks you to do without question. Are you ready?
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