Did You Feel It?

Did you feel it?
That’s the question that lit up Facebook and twitter this morning, around 4:20 a.m.

Friends from near the Kentucky boarder, to as far south as Macon, report being awakened by tremors of the 4.4 magnitude Earthquake that originated out of Decatur, Tennessee.

What strikes me is the familiarity-of-phrase: “Did you feel it?”
Most of the posts and tweets I saw expressed a similar kind of appeal to chime in.
In fact, at www.volcanodiscovery.com, you can fill out an “I felt it” report.

Which, of course, I did.
You’re welcome.

Is this what the Shepherds asked?
Is this what the Inn-keeper asked, managing too many grumpy guests, and not enough rooms?
Or, the census bureau worker, as he breaks away from pen and parchment, to saunter out into the streets of the little town of Bethlehem?

“Did you feel it?”

Truth: tectonic plates shifted that silent night; that holy night.
But few would feel it…yet.

In his book, Intimate Moments with the Savior, Ken Gire describes the moment:

And so, with barely a ripple of notice, God stepped into the warm lake of humanity.
Without protocol and without pretension.

Where you would have expected heads of state, there were only donkeys, a few haltered cows, a nervous ball of sheep, a tethered camel, and a furtive scurry of curious barn mice.

Except for Joseph, there was no one to share Mary’s pain.  Or her joy.  Yes, there were angels announcing the Savior’s arrival-but only to a band of blue-collar shepherds.  And yes, a magnificent star shone in the sky to mark his birthplace-but only three foreigners bothered to look up and follow it.

Thus, in the little town of Bethlehem…that one silent night…the royal birth of God’s Son tiptoed quietly by…as the world slept. (pp.5-6)

This is how Christ is always born—
in the hearts of those who long to feel the quaking of his presence.

The words of perhaps the most famous of Christmas carols reminds us:

How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given.
So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of His heaven.
No ear may hear His coming, but in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive him still…the dear Christ enters in.

Christ has come. The earth has moved.
Did you feel it?

Have I told you lately how much I love being your Pastor?
Well, I do.

Dr. Shaun King
Senior Pastor
Johns Creek Baptist Church