The Shepherd's Story Series

Feel free to use this however you want, I hold no copyright and you have my permission.

Christmas Eve Candlelight Service

Sunday, Dec. 24 – 6:00 pm

Scripture reading: Matthew 1:18-24

Song: When Love Was Born

My name is Cyrus. I want to tell you a story. I am a shepherd and we are great storytellers. We are known for being a little bit rough around the edges. I guess we can be a bit crude. Many people don’t like us. I even wonder at times if we’d be welcome at the temple. Huh, who helps raise all livestock for their sacrifices? That’s right, we do.

I lived in the region of Judea. The Lord had been good to us in recent years. We had been blessed with abundant offspring and minimal losses. My family had been shepherds for generations. My brothers had flocks to and we usually stayed pretty close to each other.

My father had taught me and my brothers the ins and outs of being a good shepherd. He was the best.

Now here I am all these years later and I have become my father. I know each sheep. I know when something is wrong with them. I know how to care for them and nurse them back to health when needed. If I noticed that one of the flock was missing I would go out looking for it. They know me and they know my voice, just like my father. This was the job of a shepherd. I was now teaching my son.

That particular night was the first night that I took my son out with me all night. He had been coming with me during the day but not overnight. I was so excited to have in out with me. I tried to spend as much time with him as I could but being a shepherd is a hard life and sometimes we have to move our flocks a great distance to find good grazing land. It isn’t always possible for the whole family to come along.

That day had gone about just like most other days. There really hadn’t been too much special about it. My son had stayed pretty close to me most of the day helping whenever he could. By mid-afternoon he was a bit board. The sheep were grazing and there wasn’t a whole lot that needed to be done. Some of his cousins and he took off to play in the nearby stream.

My brothers and I would round often round up our flocks and put them into the stone enclosure for the evening and this day was no different. We got them all rounded up for the afternoon and began to fix the evening meal.

We noticed that we were missing one of my sheep and so while the others watched the flocks my son and I went out to find him. I told him that it was the job of the shepherd to watch for sheep that would go astray like this. Sheep aren’t always the smartest of animals and sometimes for no reason they wonder off and it was our job as a shepherd to bring him back.

So off we went to retrieve the wayward one. We found him caught up in the thicket. It was one of the smaller ones. We tended to him and got him out of the mess that he had gotten himself into. Somehow in all of this he had gotten a gash on his front leg. My son took out his water pouch and washed out the wound while I held the little guy. He was learning, my boy.

After the wound was good to go I picked up the sheep and said let’s get back to the rest of them, the evening meal should be ready by now. Sometimes, the shepherd steers the lost sheep back to the fold and at other times he just has to pick them up and bring them back.

I had also noticed that there were extra people on the roads leading into Bethlehem. We weren’t too far away from the city. Caesar Augustus had declared a census. Everyone had to go to the town of their ancestry to register. Bethlehem was the town of King David and so many people had come to our small town. I didn’t care too much for crowds and I’m sure it was getting crowded in town as there was only so much room for people to stay. In fact I wondered if there was even room left in the inn?

Read Luke 2:1-7

I was so glad to have my son by my side. We got back and placed the little one into the fold where all the rest of the sheep were for the night and sat down to eat.