The story is told of Teddy Roosevelt entertaining guests at his Sagamore Hill estate on Long Island. After a late dinner, he invited his guests outside to walk beneath the brilliant nighttime sky. After a silent, reverent stroll Roosevelt said, “I guess we’ve been humbled enough now. Let’s go inside.”
And that’s what Christmas Eve is all about–about stargazing toward the infinite to be humble in our finiteness. So in response to the angel chorus and the angel announcement, the simple, rustic, stargazing shepherds said, “Let us go even now into Bethlehem to see this thing that has happened….” And they went inside the stable, and beheld in the manger the inner galaxy–the interior meaning of the universe. And what did they experience?
For one thing, they experienced mystery. Luke tells us they returned “glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen….”
(Maurice A. Fetty, How to Profit from Prophets)
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