Just Another Sleepy NIght

Somewhere out on the hillside, a group of shepherds are sitting around their nightly fire, while the sheep nearby are quietly settling in. 

The old man of the group began speaking. 

“Let me tell you about what happened to me and Ben last year about this time of night.  You've heard rumors, but I was there.  I saw it with my own eyes.  Ben too.”

Ben nodded, and the old man continued.  “You’re not gonna believe this. Or maybe you will.  Whatever.  It’s true.”  He then spat into the fire.

“Oh yeah,” chimed in Zek.  “This is a good one.  I've heard it before.  Go ahead Sam.  Tell us.”

“Well,” Sam began slowly.  Like I was sayin'.  Ben and me and about ten others were just settlin' down for the night.  It was a right peaceful night – the sheep were behavin' for once and were real quiet.  Three of the fellas had already started snorin', and I had just put another log on the fire when it happened. 

He paused, looked up at the stars for a long minute, and sighed.

“Well, what happened Sam?  Don’t play games with us like that.”

“Oh, alright.  Alright.  Like I was saying,   we were all settled in pretty good and some were beginnin' to doze.  My eyes had just started to droop a bit when I looked up and saw a man.”

“A man?”  You mean he just appeared in front of you and nobody saw him come into camp?”

“Yeah, he just appeared, along with this terrible bright light.  I mean it lit up the whole sky.  It was like a thousand fires at once – that’s how bright it was.”

“What did you do” asked a young shepherd boy of fourteen?

“Nothin'.  I didn't do nothin'.  I was scared sonny boy.  I was so scared I couldn't move.”

“Then what?”

“Well, he said, ‘Fear not’.  We all heard it.” 

“‘Fear not?’  That’s what he said?”

“You got that right.  Well he talked some more.”

“What’d he say then?”

“He said, ‘I've got some really great news to tell you, and it’s for everybody, not just you shepherds, so listen up.”

"Just a while ago a baby was born right over there in Bethlehem.  He is the promised Messiah – the Christ child.’” 

“What did you do?”

“Do?”  We were scared out of our wits.  What did we do?  We just sat there like a sack of rocks.  That’s what we did.”

“Well.  Go on.”

“He said, ‘Look for this sign … Find a barn and inside will be the mother and father lookin' out for their new-born baby.  He’s lying in a feedin' trough and they have wrapped him in some pieces of cloth.’”

“What’d you do then?”

“Well, those angels, or whatever they were, just left as quickly as they showed up.  We sat there for a minute, looked at each other and finally gathered our things and went in search of this baby.”

“Did you find him?”

“You bet we did.  Everything was just as that angel feller said it would be.  And after we left, we told people about it as we meandered our way back to the sheep.  People were amazed alright.  I gotta tell you though.  That was some night.  I’ll never forget it, that’s for sure.”

And that is one small part of the coming of the Christ-child.  The shepherds on that hillside became the first ones to carry the good news of Christ’s birth.  They were His first visitors.  What a night.  What a story to bring to the world. 

“We have seen the Christ as a baby in a manger.” 

And they never got over that night, for every year at this time they look up at the night sky and wondered.  They are fearful of another terrifying messenger in the sky, yet they longed for one more glimpse of that baby Messiah born for all mankind. 

P Michael Biggs

Offering Hope

Encouragement Inspiration

Merry Christmas