One time… A bright light

One time….

It was late at night and I, Timothy, was on the lookout with my sling shot on my hip…
Ready to kill any predator that might come around…
Keeping an eye out especially for wolves, and trying not to shoot my eye out when the time came for me to use it.
Benjamin, my elder brother, was seeing how many of the sheep’s names he could say in one long belch.
Thomas, our Dad, was leaning up against a tree, nodding off. He had been out in the field all day keeping watch.
And Joseph, my kid brother, was entertaining himself…trying to hit Dad from long distance with his sling shot.
One almost hit Dad right in the face! He would have been knocked out cold.
Well, here’s what happened…
Right in the middle of one of Ben’s belch attempts – a blinding light appeared.
Dad woke up, loudly mumbled something like “Your what hurts?!!!”, and fell over on the ground.
I slung shot a sharp rock at the light as hard as I could and fell over too.
Ben choked on his belch and ducked for cover.
And Joe screamed like a little girl and hid behind a fat sheep.
Then the light took form. And then the light spoke.
It was an angel.
And then I wondered if I had hit it.
“We are dead meat,” I thought to myself.
“This is it. This is the end. This is death.”
But the angel said, “Do not fear. Rejoice!!! Your Savior and King is born tonight!!! Go see him. You will find him in a barn in Bethlehem.”
And a choir of a million angels appeared and shouted praises to God and proclaimed peace for the world.
We looked at each other in wonder.
“Wha’ happened? Did that just happen?”, we kept uttering.
We were in a daze. But we ran to see what the angel had told us about. And our hearts were filled with joy as we ran.
And it was just the way the angel had said. We found him in a barn, lying in a manger.
There was Mary and Joseph and a bunch of animals.
And Mom was already there – so happy to see us. She always seemed to know before us when God was doing huge things.
And we all bowed before God-Become-Flesh and worshipped and wondered.
Then Dad arose and held God-Saves and looked in his eyes and said, “I knew this day would come. Praise the Lord!!! I have studied the Prophets my whole life. But I never imagined it being like this. Never in my wildest dreams. I can’t wait to see what you will do next, King Jesus!!!”
And we stood in silence thinking, “Neither can we, Dad. Neither can we.”
And we lowly shepherds ran and told the world around us the good news.
And many poor and humble believed.
And many rich and proud did not…
Because God’s ways are higher than our ways
And his thoughts are higher than our thoughts.