Most of life happens not in brightness or in darkness but in the 
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“We stood watch just like any other night
Counting sheep trying to stay alive
Shuffling our feet,
we heard the beat of an angel’s wings. Of angels’ wings”
Alana Lewandowski
December the 25th has come and gone. And the angels atop our trees drawing our attention over these weeks to the long – ago chorus – soon to be tucked away, boxed till the calendar turns us again to another December.
Tucked away till they appear again in a season of Merry and Bright.
Of Light, Celebration, Joy.
But my thoughts are still there, lingering, out in that dark field.
There they were, that collection of shepherds.
Out in the fields, away from the warm glow of city, and house and
Isolated, away, left to themselves and a sea of fleece. Their job to keep the sheep alive, to ward off wild animals, to have the same number of heads to count come the light of dawn.
Their job to make a living here.
Away from the bustle of townspeople carrying out their respectable business, going home to family warmth and hearth.
(And maybe we can relate? Maybe we can feel the distance, the isolation, the daily of survival in the cold of night?)
So why was it their shepherd ears that tuned to an unfamiliar sound
To the news that a Child was born.
Why these ones? Perhaps an unwashed cloak pulled around a tired body…a stomach not quite satisfied with fire-blackened dinner rations…conversation with a fellow-shepherd not filtered and scrubbed clean for eloquent audience.
But here it is the news lands. Turning dark to light. Striking a chord in shepherd hearts, not accustomed to angel-voice.
“They were afraid.”
Unexpected. Unnatural. Out of the blue – black of night. Breaking the rhythm of their daily, moment – to – moment survival.
They were afraid.
And the angel said ‘Fear not’. And maybe it was as they struggled to take it all in that the words ‘Good news’ and ‘Great joy’ and ‘All the people’ landed on their uncertain, roughened hearts.
Good news? For all people? Even looked-down-on shepherds out in the field?
Great joy? Even here in the work, in the cold – black dark of night?
They had to know, to touch, to see, they had to hurry there. Did they all go? Did they lift their shepherd’s cloaks and run, leaving their livelihood in the fields to chase a possibility? Did they leave all those long nights of hard work behind to follow an midnight’s dream, a wisp of hope?
They hurried… and they found Him, lying there. Humble, fragile, freshly – born in his manger bed. This Child wrapped tight, infant heart beating below newborn skin.
God-come-down.
They came – and they went back.
“And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.” Luke 2: 20
They returned. Sheep watching. Cold huddling. Night- watching.
Did they wonder 14 weeks later in the middle of a dark Tuesday night if it had all been a dream, if anything had changed? When the angels had left, taking the light and song with them…when nothing but sheep-bleating and the howls of hungry prey filled the empty night sky?
Maybe. Maybe it all seemed so ordinary. Like any other night of hard work.
But maybe something now was different… the song lingering in the pinpricks of light in the stars above. Lingering in their hearts, tuned to the beat of the angels wings, to the Good News, the Great Joy for All people, not just the polished and the perfect.
And though the sky hung dark as they watched this night, maybe the glory was now settled deep inside. A song to sing, praise to wisp skyward from cold lips, night after black dark night.
God had come.
And these middle of the night moments would never be the same.
And maybe the light can linger too – in our own cold dark of night, when the Merry and Bright has faded, packed away for another day.
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In the words of an author that landed on my heart 2 Decembers ago …and have been sinking deeper over these two years.
“May this be the year we are led like shepherds, faithful in the daily, open to interruption…
May this be the season we make our home in low places, awake and available, practicing precarious belief through our long stretch of tomorrows.”
Shannan Martin
In these days when belief may feel more precarious than ever before, and our tomorrows stretch into uncertainty and unknown questions of what may be …may we still lean in … and listen for the unexpected.
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“Today let our fears be the starting place of divine connection – because if a messenger were to show up with an announcement of good tidings of Great Joy, a message that will change everything,
May you be not afraid – for LOVE has drawn near.”
Scott Erickson – Honest Advent
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“And above we saw the strangest thing
All at once our hearts knew what to sing
Glory, glory, glory
Glory, glory, glory
We left the fields, moved by the angels’ song…”
Alana Lewandowski
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