Don't Be Afraid

When God sends his holy messengers from heaven, the people on our planet have a way of freaking out, which is understandable because an alien just showed up on their doorstep, interrupting their up-until-that-moment ordinary existence.

In the Christmas story, an angel shows up to four different people and the first words out of the angel's mouth is always the same, "Don't be afraid."

To Zechariah. "Don't be afraid."

To Mary. "Don't be afraid."

To Joseph. "Don't be afraid."

To the shepherds. "Don't be afraid."

(If you are curious, check it out at Luke 1:13, 30; Matthew 1:20; Luke 2:10)

And I had always assumed that the reason the angels said that was because they were glowing with heavenly light beams or were ducking under door frames because they were ten feet tall or because they were waving flaming swords around, making people nervous.

But what if the words, Don't be afraid, have nothing to do with the angel's appearance and everything to do with the angel's message?

To Zechariah.

"Don't be afraid. You and your old, barren wife are about to have a baby who will announce the coming of Jesus. Oh, and did I mention he will dress in camel's hair and eat locusts and wild honey (This point they find out later.) and because you don't believe me, you are going to lose your voice during the entire pregnancy."

To Mary.

"Don't be afraid. You are about to be shunned and ostracized in your hometown because you are going to get pregnant with God's son and although you have never been touched by any man, nobody is going to believe your story and they are going to whisper and point at you when you walk by and call you harlot and whore and turn their backs when you enter a room."

To Joseph.

"Don't be afraid. You are about to lose the respect and honor you have always enjoyed in your community because although you didn't believe Mary and wanted to quietly divorce her, what she is telling you is true, and God is asking you to help her raise his son."

To the shepherds.

"Don't be afraid. God ignored all the rich and important people and didn't invite them to see the arrival of his son, but instead, he came to invite you and when you tell your story, people may wonder what you were really sipping around the campfire while you watched your sheep on the quiet hillsides outside Bethlehem because the truth is beyond comprehension."

Yes, the more I think about it, the more I believe that the Don't be afraid thing had everything to do with the message. The hearers' lives were about to change forever--which is understandable, because God has a way of doing that. He shows up. Things happen. And sometimes it's a little messy.

In the book, Pursuing the Christ by Jennifer Kennedy Dean, she writes that God "never appears in our lives just to startle us or entertain us or impress us. He comes to call us to tasks so big we could never accomplish them and would never dare to undertake them on our own. He comes to assign us a place in His plan."

2000 years later, things haven't changed that much. God still desires to intersect the lives of ordinary people and call them to extraordinary things. He might not send an angel, but he often whispers into the quietness of a human heart. And I find that pretty darn amazing.

He's calling you. He's calling me.

And if we are listening, one of the first things He is going to say to us is this: "Don't be afraid."

- from my archives