“And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.’” (Luke 2.8-11)

Merry Christmas everyone. I’m sitting in my father-in-laws study in Cabot. We always come up here for Thanksgiving and Christmas. The holidays are changeing, though. My folks and Carla’s folks are getting older. All the kids are growing up and so they scatter to the four winds instead of gathering up like we used to do. Divorce has a way of devastating the holidays and we’ve had our share of divorces in this bunch so you need a score card to know who goes with whom around here anymore.

Anyway, we had our Christmas gift opening at home with Emily, Amy, Alex, David, Natalie, Carla, and myself on Tuesday night so there aren’t any presents up here to open. That made me sort of sad so I woke up early and decided to make some gifts for Carla and for Emily.

I am not artsy or crafty, well maybe a little crafty but not in that sort of way. I just wrote a couple of notes, made a card and a gift box, and put a little something in each of them for the girls.

I only had one problem. In all of my father-in-laws home I could find no tape. Not any kind of roll. Now it was the wee hours of the mornin’, best spoken in a soft Irish brogue, and I went out on the road searching for a convenience store that was open on the holidays.

That’s when it hit me. If the birth of Jesus had been last night then the angels probably would have appeared to some EZ Mart clerks taking a smoking break. Or maybe a few Huddle House employees getting some fresh air. Doesn’t that make sense. Or perhaps they would have visited a group of homeless folks under an overpass. It might have been some pipeline welders pulling an all-nighter or some Entergy linemen working a power outage. You get my meaning.

So when I walked in Valero I asked the attendant if he had any tape. He said I was the third one in there looking for tape and he didn’t have anything but electrical or duct tape. I settled for the electrical and counted out my $1.64 worth of change.

While he was ringing me up I asked him if he realized that the angels would have probably visited him this night if this were “the night” of Jesus birth. He looked kind of sheepish, no pun intended, and asked “You think so?” “I know so, if you believe what the book says. As a matter of fact, you may have been visited already. Merry Christmas.” And I turned and walked out.

Now do you think he gave that a second thought? Well, maybe not but it’s worth a try. Maybe we should try that more often. I mean, just give folks something to ponder. And maybe, like the angels, we should pay some visits to some folks that are in the fields keeping watch over the flocks at night. Let’s not forget the shepherds. The angels didn’t.

Merry Christmas!