Hearts Adorned With WonderНамуна

Do you ever wonder how the shepherds, who heard the angels proclaim that Christ was born and then were instructed to go see Jesus, processed their experience?

How long did the voices from heaven that echoed across the hills stick with them and beat through their hearts like a drum? Words they'd never forget!

On a night when they were minding their own business and expected to share jokes around a fire while their sheep grazed, the sky filled with more light, as though, one by one, God put in place new stars, a hundred suns to light the night.

And then the sweetest music they would ever hear filled the sky, like a thousand worshipers on instruments with a choir of a thousand angel voices singing: “Glory to God! Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among people with whom he is pleased!”

On a night that started like every other night of their lives, they were touched by heaven. They saw and heard eternity! And the most amazing part was yet to come: they saw Him. The Christ child, the Savior of the world.

Only God would do something so extraordinary and so impossible. In a way no one expected, defying their grandest ideas.

But as the night of that first Christmas ended, and the sunlight spread across Bethlehem, the heavenly host were no longer in the sky and day-to-day life returned to normal.

The shepherds had to keep the story and their experience of Jesus alive by reflecting on it, declaring it and sharing it with others. All these years later, we still recount their powerful testimony.

Here's today's wonder challenge.

Set aside 15 minutes to put your phone and every other distraction away. Grab your journal or a blank sheet of paper to write down:

• The things in your life during this past season (recent weeks, the past few months, the past year) that enable you to say, "Glory to God in the highest!"
• The ways Jesus has been present in your life or has recently revealed his presence to you.

Whether they're short lists or long lists, like the shepherds, reflecting and declaring the truth about who God is in your life changes the atmosphere around you.

As you go into the rest of your day, may your reflections of God's goodness at work in you and the presence of His Son in your life lead you into the kind of wonder that causes you to worship.

We adapted this Plan from another resource. Explore Other Resources from Unveil Studios.