And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
Earlier this week I was thinking about the Christmas story in Luke 2, and the appearance of the angel to the shepherds. It occurred to me, that the visitation came to them while they were working. I think that’s kind of interesting. I’ve noticed that when God sends a message, the method of delivery contains interesting lessons as well.
In this case, the lesson I learned is that God visits people as they are going about and fulfilling their responsibilities. Speaking for myself, I can say that the majority of personal revelation that I receive in my life comes while I am going about my day-to-day tasks … in small quiet moments when I am either pondering the scriptures, or thinking about God. This method is far more common than something coming to me while I am sitting in church or places of worship.
James Faust gave a great talk about this in a church conference that I really enjoyed, called “Some Great Thing.”
Small things can have great potential. Television, which is a great blessing to mankind, was conceived by a teenager in Idaho as he was plowing straight furrows in his father’s field with a disc harrow. He envisioned that he could transmit straight lines from one image dissector to be reproduced in another. Often we cannot see the potential in doing seemingly small things. This 14-year-old boy was doing ordinary day-to-day work when this extraordinary idea came to him. As Nephi once commented, “And thus we see that by small means the Lord can bring about great things.”