When I was associate pastor in Canton, I was often fascinated watching people at First Monday. There was a place on the First Monday grounds called the unreserved section. Most of us would call the vendors at this particular part of the grounds “junk dealers.” There were people who went to First Monday and headed straight for the unreserved section. They were looking for a bargain among the junk. For some folks that is just what they found, junk. But, many others found a special treasure there.
The same is true for the shepherds in our lesson this evening. They would travel from the fields to Bethlehem, find the stable, and there they found a tiny baby. This was not, however, just any baby. This baby was a treasure, the greatest of treasures. It was a king, not born in a palace and then placed in an ornate crib, instead this king, this treasure for all the earth was born in a barn and had a manger, a feed trough for a bed. A humble start for the greatest life the world has ever known.