“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to people he favors!” Luke 2:14 CSB

Are you like me and when you read that verse you hear it as a loud voice and with a feeling that warms you up inside? It is kind of like seeing a picture of Morgan Freeman and no matter what the caption is you hear it in his voice. That is what this verse does for me. It transports me to that hillside with the shepherds where the sky is filled with this heavenly host of beings proclaiming this statement in what I can only assume were not quiet and timid voices. The angels proclaimed “Glory to God!” That was their job at that exact moment. This one sentence. They were called upon to simply speak with their voices about God. God told them to go and speak it and they did. That brought awesome glory to the Father and impacted the lives of those shepherds forever.

Here is the cool part. What did they impart to those sheep herders in that moment? Did they restate the ten commandments or remind them not to work on the Sabbath? Did they speak of their past failures to honor God or tithe enough? Did they remind them of their sins and compare them to others? No they didn’t. They used their voices to remind the shepherds of who God was and to tell of what life with Him offers, peace. Their voices spoke of hope and a good future.

Here are two simple clauses that stilled the shepherds and countless others throughout the centuries. I am drawn to simple and easy statements like this in the Bible. Why? Well, honestly, sometimes the harder ones hurt my head. So I figure these shorter ones are sort of a gift from God, a moment where He is giving me a chance to hear the simple message and to not overthink it.

So what is God simply telling me? I actually hear a question here. “What will you do with your voice, Tammy?” Will I respond to God’s command to use it with joyful obedience as the angels did? Will I use it to bring hope to those that are fearing and questioning? Will I choose to speak of His peace to those He favors? By the way, who are those on earth He favors? Do they carry a membership card I can ask to see, kind of like the AARP? I’m going back to keeping it simple. Since I’m not really able to define who exactly He favors I think I’ll err on the side of caution and just share with all. I’ll leave it to God to be sure it gets into the ears and hearts of those He wants to hear it.

Indeed, glory to God in heaven and peace to those He loves! Pssst, that’s you!