All is calm, right?

Imagine this scene: A quiet night on a hillside. It is a little cold but there are shepherds staying out in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks in the night. They are taking turns napping by the campfire. All is calm; the stars are bright. Then suddenly the sky is filled with angels singing at the tops of the voices, and it is no longer calm out there. The sheep scatter. The shepherds gape and shake in their shoes.

Fast forward a little more than two thousand years. You are busy doing what you do at your job or making preparations for Christmas – shopping, working, baking, decorating, entertaining, going to parties and concerts. All is calm, right? Well, perhaps not. Yet what if what happened to those shepherds just doing their jobs on that starry night so long ago suddenly happened to you while you are going about your business.

Now imagine this scene: You are standing in line at the checkout at Sears with your arms full of gifts to buy when suddenly, the place fills up with angels – great big shiny, glowing guys with wings that work – singing and announcing that a great thing has just happened. The saviour of the world has just been born and they cannot conceal their happiness. They are so thrilled that they break through the visual barrier, descend through the ceiling, and appear all around you to declare the exciting news.

Or maybe you are baking another batch of cookies for your child’s school Christmas concert. You open the oven, pull out the cookie sheet lined with fragrant treats, turn to grab your spatula and, whoa! There is a bunch of angels in your kitchen blowing trumpets and singing in five part harmony, a voicemail directly from God himself, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace and good will toward all mankind.”

The Christmas story recounts that those shepherds where “sore afraid”. We would probably describe their reaction as totally freaked out. Just like you would be if a choir of angels popped in on your world. If you were standing in the bakery aisle of your local supermarket, or sitting at your computer working, and this happened, what would you do? Maybe you would quickly glance around to see how other people are reacting. Perhaps you would just scream and run in the other direction. If they appeared in your kitchen, I suspect your cookies would be toast, or that pan might burn right through your oven mitts.

If they said, like they did to those shepherds, “Come and see,” would you? I know that my curiosity would get the best of me in spite of shaking knees.

Believing in Christmas, means believing that there is something more to life than just what we see or just what our to-do lists contain. It means believing in the supernatural and that there is a God, who thought enough of each of us to give the ultimate gift, his Son, so that there might be peace in hearts, and good will on earth.

It’s called Christmas because Christ was born. Let’s not allow Christmas to become a bland, characterless “holiday”. There is still something to celebrate even after all these centuries. God still gives peace like nothing or no one else can and his will toward us is still good. And Jesus’ birth changed the world and still does, one life at a time.

The angels are probably still rejoicing about that and who knows, if you believe, perhaps you will even get to see some of them this year. That would certainly sparkle up your Christmas, wouldn’t it? If you do, try not to be totally freaked out. All is calm, right?