A FICTIONAL RETELLING OF THE NON-FICTIONAL BIBLICAL NARRATIVE

Christmas Through The Eyes of Justus the Shepherd

Justus, the shepherd, to Joshua, my beloved uncle.

Go ahead and sit down. You’re not going to believe this.

Well it’s been two weeks now since the night everything changed. That’s what I’ve been calling it. I can’t think of a better way to describe it. I mean, that night… well, I guess everything didn’t change. I’m still just a shepherd and all, but that’s fine. The way I view this life changed that night though. Who would say that isn’t a big thing?

It was just a normal winter night, ya know? It was cold, it was late, me and the boys were starting to wrap up our nightly joking around and all the normal stuff when… seriously, you’re not going to believe this… I promise, I’m not making this up. I’m not smart enough to… Joshua, it got bright! I mean, brighter than day-time bright. An ANGEL showed up out there in our field’s sky. Man, I’m not kidding, it was absolutely terrifying. I’ve never been close to being that scared. You would have been too! But just as me and the boys were finishing up screaming and cursing out of fear, that angel said, (I’ll never forget it):

“Do not be afraid.” (Yeah right… too late).

“I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.” (For all the people? Then why aren’t you telling all the people? Do you realize we’re just shepherds? What do you mean for all the people?).

“Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” (WHAT?? The Christ? The Messiah? You decided to tell US about the Messiah? We’re shepherds! The Messiah was born today and we’re going to find him in a stable?? Really?)

So that’s what the angel said, and those are the thoughts that were going through my still kinda freaked out mind when he was saying them. I mean, you couldn’t deny that there was an angel of the Lord up there. The same Lord who’s never spoken to the likes of us… or anyone else in hundreds of years as far as I know. It went against all logic and common sense, but we all knew it to be true.

Well then, as if the one angel and the really bright sky in the middle of the night weren’t enough, I mean, just when that angel was done saying those things, right after he was done, a TON of angels showed up in the already bright sky. If they’d showed up like that at first, I’m serious, I would have died. Literally. Anyway, they showed up and they were all just rejoicing and praising Yahweh saying, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.” And at that point, though I was still very overwhelmed by all that had just taken place in the past 15 minutes, I did feel a great sense of peace. It’s hard to explain.

Well then the night sky went back to how it’s supposed to be: dark. After about 3 minutes of all us boys just standing there staring at the sky in silent awe, we decided to go into Bethlehem town and see this unbelievable event of which we were just told. So we ran, oh man, we were moving, in to town. I felt bad because we were being pretty loud (you’d have been loud too after all that) as we made our way to the manger that the angel told us about. We had a pretty good idea of the particular stable that this baby would be in, and we were right. When we turned the corner and saw that scene: the dad with his arm around his wife who was holding the baby, who, like the angel had said, was wrapped in cloth; all of them were standing on the blood-covered ground… I cannot describe how that moment felt. Like I said, we believed what that angel said was true (who wouldn’t?) but man… tangibly seeing exactly what we’d been told… I know it’s weird to say but I felt close to Yahweh at that moment.

We told the parents (they were named Joseph and Mary) all about how we’d ended up there. We stayed there for a while and marveled at the baby Messiah (his name is Jesus! The parents told us that angels had talked to them too, and the angel told them to name him that!). After we stood and worshiped Yah for that baby, we went back out through town and started telling everybody what we’d been told and what we’d seen that night. Man, those people weren’t very happy to be woken up, but when we told them our story, every one of them was amazed. How could you not be?

Uncle Joshua, I hope you don’t think I’ve lost my mind. I swear every word of this story is true. I hope you live long enough to see the stuff that this Messiah is going to do! Jerusalem is going to be restored! I got to see our King as a baby! I’m still excited about it. I got to see King Jesus on the day he was born! I still can’t get over the fact that Yah decided to send his angels to us. Not to mention that the Messiah was born in Bethlehem… there’s lots about the whole thing I don’t get, but I cannot help but believing. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on all this.

Send Sarah greetings.

Justus