Heavenly Interruption

I listen to news radio while I get dressed in the morning.
Give us twenty minutes and we’ll give you the world, is the tag line for the station.
That’s about right since I can hear news, weather, sports, and traffic before I’m done.
Quick snippets of news to get my day started.

The other morning, they broke in with a quick announcement.
This is test of the Emergency Broadcast System; this is only a test.
They then proceeded to sound that awful sound that would be an alert if necessary.
The same sound that always scared me when I was a little girl.

I listened with adult ears and it wasn’t so bad.
An annoying interruption, though a necessary one.
The Emergency Broadcast System used to do this test on television.
When I was little, I would run out of the room until it was over.

Before the twenty-four hour news we have now, there were special reports.
At any time, your regularly scheduled programming could be interrupted.
If that happened, you knew that something important needed to be told.
You paid attention because it was necessary.

When we teach our children manners, we teach them not to interrupt.
You do not talk when someone else is talking; you say excuse me.
Children seem to master the excuse me part, though not their timing or persistence.
Excuse me. Excuse me. Excuse me; each time getting a bit louder.

We do not like interruptions.
We do not like anything disturbing the ebb and flow of our days.
We like to keep on, keeping on without stopping.
We tend to get annoyed when something interrupts us.

Sometimes we have to be interrupted.

Most of our daily news is inert, consisting of information that gives us something to talk about but cannot lead to any meaningful action…We do not measure a culture by its output of undisguised trivialities but by what it claims as significant…(Neil Postman)

Neil Postman, in his book, Amusing Ourselves To Death, has it right.
We are concerned with trivia, surface level conversation, and meaningless information.
They enemy would love nothing better.
Things that do not matter are interrupting us.

We are getting notified about such insignificant things.
We have text alerts, email alerts, and calendar alerts on our phones.
We are so tuned in to the sounds that interrupt our life.
We are conditioned to respond immediately.

One night God interrupted.
God interrupted a group of men who were considered marginal people.
Necessary to some extent, but expendable.
God chose them in His heavenly interruption to witness the spectacular.

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 of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find the 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, and on earth peace to men on whom His favor rests.” When the angel 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 2:8-20)

A heavenly interruption.
The regularly scheduled program of life was stopped by something unimaginable.
An angel of the Lord broke through with a heavenly announcement.
Since that kind of interruption was not typical, attention was paid.

Would we know the difference?
Have we gotten so used to our trivialities that we would miss the truly significant?
Have we become so desensitized by the sounds of our alerts that we fail to really hear?
Do we even know how to discern what is important?

We interrupt your daily life with this important announcement: For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16) You can now go back to your regularly scheduled programing.

What does that look like exactly?
How do you go back to the regular program of your life after such an interruption?
How has the Heavenly Interruption changed you?
Is it business as usual or are you simply astounded by what God has done?

We do not measure a culture by its output of undisguised trivialities but by what it claims as significant.

How are we doing?

This Christmas turn down the din so you can be interrupted.
Interrupted out of your regularly scheduled programming so you can pay attention.
Pay attention to the Heavenly Interruption that shook the world.
The Heavenly Interruption that still shakes the world.

Has it shaken you?
Nothing is more important than your response to God’s interruption.
Heaven broke through and stepped into our world.
We were Divinely interrupted by Immanuel, God with us.

We will never be the same.