Fear not, and Come Unto Christ

This was a past blog update that was lost due to complications with my other blog site! 

"Fear not Zacharias."  "Fear not Mary."  "Fear not: For I bring you good tidings of great joy."

 This week in class we discussed the birth of Jesus Christ (yes, we had Christmas in September.) And something that stood out to me was the term "fear not." It was told to numerous people throughout these chapters. Each had something different to fear. The people that were instructed to have no fear were Zacharias, Mary, and the shepherds ( all these stories can be found in Luke chapters one and two.) All of these situations were amazing and inspired me. However, one of these stories really stood out to me. It was that of the shepherds.

Imagine these shepherds that are out in the fields one night. They're minding their own business, just spending time with their sheep when suddenly a bright, angelic light shines all around.  And in the middle of the field appears a holy being; an angel. This alone would be enough to throw anyone off guard! Aware of the shepherds fear the angel announces "Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people." (Luke 2:10) After this the angel tells the shepherds about the sign of Jesus's birth and where to find him. Now this is the part that I really love: after the angel leaves the shepherds are discussing what they have heard and decide to go find the Savior. The verse I love is Luke 2:16 "And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger."

The shepherds didn't wait! They didn't just take their sweet time to get to Bethlehem, they came with haste! They dropped everything they were doing and went to the baby that was born in the lowly stable. From this I learned so much. These humble shepherds had jobs to do, families, obligations, and I am sure the list goes on. Disregarding all this, they go forward without any fear to find the Savior. I know this can apply to us all (myself included) in our daily lives. How many times have we been faced with situations where we have an opportunity to come unto Christ?  Whether it is by serving someone you know, fulfilling a church calling, doing something right, or simply getting down on your knees to pray, we have all have opportunities to “make haste” and come unto Him. But when faced with this do we shrink back with fear? Do we place our worldly obligations before that which is most important?  We shouldn't! We should do as these humble shepherds did and quickly go to our Savior. He is the one we should seek out most often in our lives, then why should we do it slowly? I know that if we (again, myself included) "make haste" to find the savior in our day to day lives we will be truly blessed.