As I read about the birth announcement, I had an interesting thought that it must have had symbolic meaning of who Jesus came to the earth to save. By announcing to common shepherds it showed that Jesus was coming for everyone. The other interesting thing is the way the announcement took place with a heavenly host, which gave very little doubt as to the importance of the birth. While it must have been terrifying in many ways to experience something so powerful, I can just imagine the shepherds looking at each other in utter astonishment after it was all over.
Jesus’ early life must have been interesting to everyone around Him. On the one hand He is a child and on the other He is God’s son. As for His human parents, how difficult would it be to know how to raise someone you knew was special, even if you did not fully grasp that this was actually God’s son. Yet, they were obedient in everything they did as His parents. One of the notes in my Bible explained that everything Mary and Joseph did in verse 21-24 was according to the law. This was meant to show that Jesus was not above the law, but was here to fulfill the law perfectly. I also love the contrast of Jesus in verse 49 with 51. In verse 49 He is in the Temple where he says to His parents that He is in His Father’s house. In verse 51 it says that He went back to Nazareth and was obedient to His parents. We have to assume that Jesus already knew who He was and what He was here to do, yet He is still an example of a perfect human being and knew that as a child He needed to be obedient to His parents.
Daily Devotion 
Verse 11 says it all, “11 Today a Savior, who is Messiah the Lord, was born for you in the city of David.” Just like Dino said, Jesus was born for all of us who would accept Him. I’ve also been thinking for a while on the last verse of the reading, “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and with people.” That really should be our goal once we accepts the gift of God’s grace. We should attempt to grow in our wisdom by spending time in the Word, trying to understand how we should live our lives to glorify God. This will clearly please God, while at the same time help us to build rapport with the people around us. Jesus tells us that the greatest commandment is to love God and love others and I believe these words that describe Him at 12 show us that was always His goal.
I couldn’t help but contrast the response of the shepherds to that of the scribes and Pharisees from yesterdays reading. V 15-16 ‘and they made haste…’ So completely opposite. Sort of reminds me that sometimes being too close to something can make us miss it’s value and importance.
Wow, I think it’s remarkable that little, 12 year old Jesus was by himself for two whole days (joseph and mary traveled an entire day before looking for him and turning back. then they found him the following day when they returned.) He was so engrossed in doing God’s work, he must have lost track of time or rearranged his priorities completely. Can you imagine a present day 12 year old kid staying in a distant city alone for 2 days just to do God’s work at church?! That speaks volumes about his passions and maturity!