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Advent is over, we have celebrated His coming, but we have pondered on how the story doesn’t end in the manger, it goes on, and that is what I want to do; that is exactly what I want to do. I do not want to stop in the manger; I want to walk through the Gospel; I need the Gospel in my life every day.

Today I am thinking on the shepherds; they heard the news, they went to the manger and then what? They went back to their sheep.

The Christmas tree and the lights will be put away soon… but the story, my love story with my Master will go on.

I have thinking on the last chapter of the book The Holiness of God,  on those words that keep coming back to my heart… living in the sacred. Holy space and Holy time.  Christ has come… He has come. Hear it, O my soul, the Lord has come to you! I walk in the sacred because He has come!  I do not want to miss this. I want to live glorifying God in my body.

“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”
1 Corinthians 6: 19-20

How is easily I forget that my body is temple of the Holy Spirit. How I easily I forget that I am standing on holy ground, on holy space, and holy time.

Calvin says that the shepherds, once they heard the news from the angels, once they saw the Messiah…

“Their earthly lot did not change, despite the fact that they had heard the angel’s word and had witnessed the birth of God’s Son. They went back to their flocks exactly as before; they continued to live as as poor men, guarding their herds. In terms of the flesh and of this passing world they gained nothing from the privilege which we read about here. For all that, they were full of joy. Theirs is a lead we should follow. For although the gospel might earn us neither wealth nor fame, and although it might not bring us gratification or amusement, nevertheless we should be glad that we are the objects of God’s favour. That is where true blessing and happiness lie, and where real rest is found”

Today is the Lord’s Day, today we enter into the weekly Sabbath, into rest. Let us find our rest in  the Gospel. In the good news: “A Saviour is Born to us, who is Christ the Lord!” (Luke 2: 9-14)

May we enter today His Sabbath knowing that we are the objects of His favour.