Shepherds in Bailey

Hey, the shepherds didn’t sit on what they heard. They were not passive. They, in fact, did three things: They investigated. They went to Bethlehem on a baby-hunt. Now they didn’t have a star like the wisemen did, so they had to look. They evidently went from stable to stable, looking for a feeding trough holding a baby.

And as they looked they were talking. That was the second thing they did. They told everybody they met what they had seen and heard. They were causing quite a stir in that quiet little town, I’m sure. Can you imagine it? You’re sitting in your home in about 10 pm at night, in Bailey, North Carolina. All of a sudden, there’s a knock on the door and when you answer it, there are a bunch of farmers, dressed in overalls, and they look at you and say, You got a baby in your barn?

You answer, “Well, I don’t think so. Whose baby you looking for?”

“Well,” they answer, “the angels said there’d be a baby lying in a manger, wrapped up in swaddling clothes. We just wondered if you might know where we could find him.”

“Well,” you answer, “I haven’t heard of a baby, much less a baby who has angels passing out birth announcements. Why are you so excited about this baby?”

“O,” they say, “It’s because this baby isn’t just an ordinary baby. The angels said that this baby was our Savior. He is Christ the Lord and He’s come to bring peace.”

Hey, these shepherds didn’t sit on the news. They told it! They responded with active faith! They had enough faith to believe that what they had seen was real and they did something about