A Post-Christmas Vignette

  "One night long ago, I was a young boy like so many, and being the youngest, though old enough, I had to look after our family's sheep. I was sitting on the hillside with the other boys, and all was well, when suddenly the Angel of the Lord appeared before us, with great glory all around. It was how I always imagined it was for Moses when he first saw the Burning Bush. Anyway, we were all struck with great fear, but we couldn't seem to move. We just sat there, gaping. Then the angel spoke to us, and he said, 'Don't be afraid, for behold: I bring you good news of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a saviour, which is The Anointed One, the Lord. And this shall be a sign to you: you will find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.' And suddenly the whole sky was full of angels, all singing praises to God, and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.'

   "We all sat there listening, I don't know how long! Eventually the angels went away, going up into heaven, but as we watched them, it was almost as if they came together and became a star overhead, shining brightly. We all said to each other, let's go into Bethlehem right now and see this thing that the angels told us about. So we just left the sheep, never thinking about them until later, and ran into town. It seemed odd for a baby to be in a manger, but the town was full of visitors getting enrolled for taxes decreed by Caesar Augustus, so we searched around all the stables we could think of, until we found the one the angel must have meant. In it, there was a man and a woman and their donkey, and a newborn baby lying in a manger, just as the angel had said.

   "The man motioned for us to be quiet, as his wife was sleeping. He was sitting on some straw, with her head in his lap. We stood quietly for a time, just looking at them all, but then I thought I would burst if I didn't tell the man about the angels. I knelt down next to him and told him as quietly as I could. He smiled and nodded, saying the Angel of the Lord had visited him too, and thanked me for telling him. Spending the night in a stable was not what he had expected to happen, but the baby was born, and so this must have been what God intended. We stayed a bit longer, until the baby awakened and the man asked if I would bring him to his mother. I gathered him into my arms like a newborn lamb, and he smiled and put his hand on my chest as I carried him. His mother awakened as I approached and I gave him into her arms. Then we left.

   "As we walked back to the sheep, we told everyone that came along what had happened. Though it seemed we had been gone a long time, the sheep hadn't drifted away; it was as if they were just waiting for us to return - talk about a miracle! We all sat down again on the hillside and looked up at the star. That star stayed in the sky right overhead and never moved, for about two years. In fact it stayed until the night of Rachel's Weeping, when Herod's soldiers came and killed all those children. After that night, I never saw it again. So we sat on the hillside. How could it be that the world simply went on as it was? Something wonderful had happened, and yet, and yet, I still had to tend the sheep. I still sat on the hillside, cold and stiff. In the morning my older brother came and I went home and slept. The world went right on as before. But Messiah was here; I knew I had to wait, but the Lord was at work.

   "Thirty years have gone by, and I am getting to be an old man. I have sheep of my own, and sons to look after them. But I have never forgotten that night, Rabbi. It was you I held for a few moments, and carried to your mother, wasn't it? It was you of whom the angels sang in the heavens above us. It was you, the Anointed One, the Lord himself."

"Yes, dear one. It was I. For now, tell no one; greater things than these will you see before I return to the Father."