Daily Worship

Mary’s Diary: Keeping Watch

Lily Cathcart December 21, 2021 0 2
shepherd_sheep_walking_unsplash
Image credit: Unsplash
Listen to this daily worship

Luke 2: 8-9 (NRSVA)

8 In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.

My first night as a mother is accompanied, not by my own mum’s seasoned advice or my sister’s delicious tea, but by the warm breath of a cow and her half grown calf and by the nicker of a curious donkey wondering who the new passenger is.

However unexpected my companions are, I’m glad of them. Glad of their warmth and of the reminder that some part of me knows what I’m doing. Just as the cattle or the flocks on the hillside labour and nurture without being told how, so do I.

And yet they are watched over, the sheep are counted by the shepherd, the shepherds keep watch as the lambs grow, they keep watch at night to scare away the wolves. Who is keeping watch over me? Who will protect me from the wolves that might threaten me and my baby?

But he’s not just my baby. He’s Gods baby too. Yes, God is keeping watch, God who needs no sleep, who sees me and my tired eyes, who hears the cries of our boy. God is always keeping watch, like a good shepherd.

 

PRAYER:

 

Dear God who sees

Keep watch over us we pray.

Protect us from harm,

Deliver us safely into the arms of loved ones

Shepherd us as we walk your ways

Amen.