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Come to the Manger!
T
he very first story I ever really loved did not start out with “Once upon a time.” As I remember it, the story started with “There were shepherds abiding in the fields.” Now, if you are concerned that those words actually occur more than halfway through Luke’s narrative of the nativity, when most of the story has already taken place, fear not! I love every bit of the story of Joseph, Mary, and Baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes. But I’m glad Luke included the shepherds in the story. When I first heard the story as a wee lamb myself, I knew the group I might like to be a part of: the bunch of shepherds camping on the hills, telling stories beside a nice warm fire, surrounded by friendly sheep who were listening in on every word—and known to the angelic host as servants of God, good and true! By the time I learned that some might consider them to be a questionable choice to be witnesses to the birth of Jesus because they were rough and loud and probably smelled terrible and rarely went to church, I had already decided that theirs was just about the coolest story ever. And the part about the angel choir appearing in the sky like the fireworks on the fourth of July made their adventures even better. Since I grew up in a singing family, it made total sense
8 Pacific Union Recorder
