The Fourth Carol of Christmas

           Whenever I wished myself somewhere in the Christmas story as a child I never wished to be Mary. Oh no. No little girl in her right mind wants to be Mary. I certainly knew better. No, I wanted to be one of the shepherds.  I wanted to be present when the herald angel visited and startled the poor men out of their wits. I wanted to witness the skies burst open to a myriad of angels proclaiming God's praises. What a memory to carry with you to the end of your days.

            I will share with you one of my life long wishes. It's one I'm almost certain will never be fulfilled, but I'd like to see an angel just once in this life. I used to pray for this wish, assuring God that if He would only let me see an angel just once I'd never tell anybody about it.(As a child I'd read stories about people who'd seen fantastical things, talked incessantly about it and ended up in mental facilities, I knew better!)

          Well, it's true, if I did see an angel, I wouldn't talk about it much, I'm sure, but to date I haven't seen one. I can't begin to know God's reasons for the things He does, but I do know that not just anybody gets to see angels, and there's always a special reason when one does.

          Probably the greatest event in history for which angel appearances are recorded, I think we can all agree, was Christ's birth.
      My brother Tobias, whom I managed to photograph above, recently told me that the angels visited the Shepherds because they thought they were cool watching over all those dumb sheep(Sheep are a little lacking in mental capacity).

          We had a good laugh, but in reality, I think the Shepherd's were probably the least cool people in the time of Christ that the angels could have visited. Perhaps that's why they visited them. Of all the people God could have sent the first birth announcement to, there was hardly a demographic more despised than the Shepherds.

           Yet it was for them that the skies unfurled to a multitude of the heavenly host.
          It was to the dirty, rough, brutish shepherds that the angel said, "Unto you is born this day a Saviour."  (Or, in Tobias' words, "Hey bro's what's up?) And it was these same uncouth men who knelt before the baby and worshiped him.

           I sometimes wonder how much my nephew actually comprehends of the world around him at this stage, knowing full well that this  time will shape him, but leave him with no conscious memories. How aware, I wonder, was Jesus as a baby of the Shepherds visit? As God He probably knew, I suppose, but He did surrender some of His privileges as God, when He came to earth, so what did that look like? It's philosophical food for thought, but of course this is one thing God did not tell us.

          Anyhow, I guess you know where I heading now. I want to share a beautiful old Austrian Carol about the Shepherds. It's arranged by another of my composing heros whom I had the great pleasure of meeting this year: Dan Forrest.

         The carol isn't exactly the most accurate in terms of talking about the shepherds seeing a star, but over all it's a beautiful carol which exalts the glory of God.

           I love the words of the third verse: