DOUG EICHER
NOTEBOOK
Shepherds on Superior Street12/25/2019 I plugged in my guitar and stepped up to the microphone, trying to shift my mind into gear. It had been one of those mornings. It seemed as if everything had just taken longer than it should have, and I was running behind. I got there with 10 minutes to spare; just enough time to lug in everything from the car and set it up in front of the rows of blue plastic chairs that were waiting to be filled by the line of winter coats and overalls forming at the door. Finally, I plugged in the last cable just as the seats were being filled. My mind was still moving down the mental checklist of tasks as I picked up my guitar and stepped toward the microphone.
As I played the first song about a brave little boy from another world, I looked out over the faces staring back at me. There was an assortment of people: men and women, young and old, black and white. Each face told a story; a story of people they loved and who loved them; a story of younger days and better times; a story of hopes and dreams now lying in a thousand crystalline pieces on the floor. On the last chorus of “Oh Come, All Ye Faithful”, I stopped playing and we all joined in, acapella, on the invitation to “come let us adore him”. I watched tears form at the edges of their eyes as we lifted up our voices together. We were all different; we had different stories, different families, different experiences, different hurts, and different joys. And yet, as we sang together, we were joined by one common thread: the hope of God come screaming and squirming into the world as a helpless little infant; this funny thing we call “Incarnation”. And so, we stood there around the manger, with shepherds from Bethlehem and astrologers from the east, none of us deserving, but all of us grateful; joined by the love of a baby who came to make us one. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
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