Merry Christmas as the day draws ever closer! In Luke 1 we read about Zacharias, a priest whose lot was to burn incense one day in the temple. First, he enjoyed the honor of selection, but then fear fell on him. To paraphrase the scripture a bit, it seems that an angel stood to the right of the incense altar. As in many other cases in the Bible, the angel first tells Zach to not be afraid. Angels bring messages of good news from God, but we in our sinfulness suffer that avalanche of fear when confronted with the uncanny.
It is interesting that while we pray for and take comfort in guardian angels, when actually confronted by an angel the people in the Bible are frightened. We can claim no exemption as I am quite sure that I would be frightened in much the same way as Gideon, Zacharias, Mary, and the many others who met angels in the scripture stories. A bit over a year later, some shepherds abiding in the field by night had the same reaction - they were sore afraid. There does seem to be a lot of fear in the Christmas story.
The good news is that amongst all that fear, God sent His Son to cleanse us from fear. Do you still suffer the problem of fear in this life? Yes, me too. We have been given faith in the Good News though, and that faith will one day see the banishment of fear, forever. Another interesting picture to hold in mind is that while our Shepherd leads us toward home, He drives fear before Him. Rest in His love as we celebrate the birth of Christ!
Bucky
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