“Shepherds watched their flocks by night.”  Luke 2:8

I often wondered about those shepherds. We know that many of God’s first dedicated followers were shepherds who took care of their flocks of sheep and goats, protecting them from prey, finding fresh pastures, and leading them to places where there was water for them to drink.

But what about those shepherds who watched their flocks on the night Jesus was born?

When Esprit was still being published, I wrote a poem that was published there, imagining how it might have looked to two shepherds when they came to see the baby Jesus and his mother and earthly father.  We don’t have much information outside of those words.

I imagine the men of low estate wrapped in warm clothing, maybe pelts of sheepskin like the animals they tended. Sitting or lying there in the dark on a hill near their flock, when seemingly out of nowhere this being came out of the heavens to give them the news.

(David, who later became king, was just a boy, but I imagine men and boys out of the hills that night.)

I’m guessing they hadn’t seen an angel. It would be quite a shock and of course they would cower in fear, the sheep being out of mind for the moment. But then the angel says, “Don’t be afraid.” Easier said than done. The angel goes on to say he has good news for them.

Now the shepherds are listening. For there has been plenty of bad news in the land. A king who would murder anyone who got in his way, including his own family members; Roman soldiers roaming the streets of the city. The shepherds were likely safest in the field tending sheep. Yes, so much bad news.

But here the angel says “good news.” And so they listen. Following this announcement, we read that these lowly shepherds are serenaded by a whole band of those heavenly beings, singing. And what a chorus it must have been.

We know in the account of Luke 2, that shepherds, being the first to hear the news were likely the first visitors this baby had. We also know they went about telling people about the baby.

Pieces of my nativity creche