How many mangers?

 

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph and the Baby, who was lying in the manger. Luke 2:15-16

What hit me this year, as I heard this story again, was, "How many managers were there in Bethlehem?" This took me to the second question, "How long did it take them to find him?" 

Sure, Bethlehem wasn't a huge city, but it was crowded with those who came as they were from the family of David. The town was probably filled with homes that had their livestock with them, and so they had feeding boxes for their animals. It was night, so how many people did they tell about the visitation even before they found the baby? 

Of course, you might be thinking, "Who cares?" This has nothing to do with me, but are you sure? I'm not. Jesus later told his disciples in Luke 11:9, “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." The shepherds sought, and they found. There are truths that Jesus wants to tell us, but we need to seek (in the Bible). There is a life out there God wants us to live, but we have to be willing to go and find it. 

Are you (and I) willing to do the work of finding what God has told us about, or are we just going to stare at the sky and wonder what it all means? 

Photo by Jon Carlson on Unsplash