Sometimes I wonder about my life. I lead a small life – well, valuable, but small – and sometimes I wonder, do I do it because I like it or because I haven’t been brave? So much of what I see reminds me of something I read in a book, when shouldn’t it be the other way around? I don’t really want an answer. I just want to send this cosmic question out into the void. So good night, dear void (Kathleen Kelly, writing to Joe Fox “NY152” in the 1998 romantic comedy You’ve Got Mail).
Like many forty-something women, I am an unabashed lover of rom coms from the 90s and early 2000s, so I can pretty much quote You’ve Got Mail in its entirety. The musings above are from an email conversation between Kathleen (Meg Ryan) and Joe (Tom Hanks). Kathleen owns a small independent bookshop, while Joe’s family owns a chain of successful bookstores.
Here we see Kathleen wondering about her life choices, feeling like she hasn’t lived large enough. I love her humility to recognize her small circle of influence, but also her wisdom in realizing that small can still be valuable, that one doesn’t have to be a huge success in the eyes of the world in order to matter.
Why am I blogging about this movie around the holidays, you may wonder. Well, there are some rather nostalgic Christmas scenes in You’ve Got Mail. Particularly that scene where she’s in the picture window of her Shop Around the Corner, decorating the tree and thinking about Joni Mitchell’s River and missing her mother while Harry Nilsson’s Remember plays in the background – absolutely priceless!
Believe it or not, I was reading an advent devotional when I was reminded of this movie. Let me attempt to explain this odd connection. We may expect the arrival of a royal baby to be broadcast to the best and brightest in society, but God chose a different way to announce the birth of His Son.
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.
But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests” (Luke 2:8-14).
If you’re like me and you grew up participating in church nativities, you remember the parts we got to play: shepherds, wisemen, angels, Joseph and Mary (usually with an old baby doll for Baby Jesus). And often, someone in church would donate donkey and sheep costumes so a couple of happy kids could crawl around on stage and bray and bah to their heart’s content (or until they caught their mother’s angry glare and stopped themselves before it was curtains for them).
My point is, for us, we’ve always lumped all the characters together – with the exception of Baby Jesus, of course. But back when Jesus was born, shepherds were not considered on par with others. For one thing, it was hard work, long hours with little monetary compensation.
Shepherds rated low on the social ladder. They were considered uneducated and unskilled. When others would go to offer sacrifices, as God commanded, shepherds couldn’t usually attend because they had to watch the sheep. This caused others to see them as ceremonially unclean, further alienating them from the rest of society.
So the fact that God chose shepherds – of all people! – to send this amazing angel-studded invitation to was an unexpected move. We may wonder why God chose this group of smelly misfits as the recipients of this royal baby news. We may even assume news of this magnitude would be lost on these unskilled laborers.
But thankfully, we would be wrong to think such things. For God sees differently than we do. In 1 Samuel 16:7, we learn that “The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
Perhaps God wanted to give this good news to the people who most needed it. Maybe He wanted to show all of us that He is not impressed by our success and titles and possessions. Rather, what He is looking for are hearts open to receiving His good news and living out their lives with His purpose in mind.
Let’s see what the shepherds did with this news: When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”
So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.
But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told (Luke 2:15-20).
The shepherds received unexpected news from terrifyingly beautiful messengers of God while being faithful to a gritty and unimpressive occupation. And they acted on the message. They followed up and found Jesus, just as the angel said they would. And they told everyone what had happened. Regardless of their lack of social standing, they were compelled to share this good news of great joy. This was phenomenal, life-changing news, and they refused to hide it away for themselves alone.
Thinking about the shepherds’ excitement over their own form of good news reminds me of another quote from You’ve Got Mail, still as part of the ongoing email thread between Kathleen and Joe. This one describes her excitement each day as she checks her email inbox, waiting to be seen, waiting for that confirmation that someone values her.
What will NY152 say today, I wonder. I turn on my computer. I wait impatiently as it connects. I go online, and my breath catches in my chest until I hear three little words: You’ve got mail. I hear nothing. Not even a sound on the streets of New York, just the beating of my own heart. I have mail. From you.
That’s what it feels like to be seen, to be valued. We, too, have mail. Just like the shepherds, just like Kathleen Kelly. And that is what we celebrate at Christmastime when we sing carols and dust off our nativity sets – that Immanuel, God with us, came to live among us.
He downgraded to the extreme in leaving heaven for earth, but nevertheless, He came. He came to the shepherds, even though they weren’t considered worthy by anyone else. Still, God saw fit to send angels to announce good news of great joy to them. And still, He sees fit to grace us – sinners who default to falling away from Him and getting distracted by so many lesser things – with His forgiveness, His eternal life.
2 Corinthians 8:9 tells us, For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.
Our small, average lives become rich with meaning when we believe in Him. We are seen, known, and valued. And that is, indeed, good news.
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