Along a narrow road just outside of Bethlehem, shepherds trooped to their fields, as the eastern sky began to glow with the approaching dawn. Their minds were still reeling from the busy, confusing night. First they had been stunned by a fearsome angel with an announcement, followed by a spectacular sound and light show featuring an angel choir. They were directed to a stable in Bethlehem, where they found a young mother and father hovering over a manger, which cradled their new-born baby. When they told the new parents about the angels, they didn’t seemed surprised at all. In fact both mother and father eagerly shared their own angel encounters, which had also heralded the baby’s birth. They couldn’t help telling every person they met the amazing tale of what they’d seen.
In the King’s palace in Jerusalem, Herod stirred fitfully. He seldom received a good night’s rest and this night was more disturbing than most. His mind continually raced with rumors and fears that his tortured conscience could not release. Worried about the throne he had jealously protected for years, even to the point of killing wives and children, he endlessly replayed conversations, looking for subconscious clues that might reveal the plots he was certain were hatching behind his back. He eagerly anticipated another busy day, when the torturing inner voices would fade for a few hours and he could stab more unnerving questions at the cowering minions who surrounded him.
Just outside of Jerusalem, in the home of Zechariah and Elizabeth, another baby cooed and gurgled. Just a few months old, he thrived on the attention of his parents. Older than most first time parents, they were tuned in to the baby’s every sound. They were eager to start schooling him, even at young age, for the destiny they were certain awaited him.
Hundreds of miles to the east, a Persian astrologer eagerly summoned his friends to discuss a discovery he’d made while plotting the tracks of the planets across the skies. Jupiter, the kingly planet, was entering the constellation of Aries the Ram, suggesting that the kingdom of the Jews was going to be receiving a new king. Never before had the skies spoken to him so clearly. Perhaps, he suggested to his colleagues, we should go visit this king to learn why he was so important that the heavens announced his arrival. Soon they were discussing what gifts would be appropriate for the new king. Unknowingly, they would also bring death warrants for all of the other babies in the tiny town where their search would end.
To the north, on the Lake Kinneret, two brother fishermen headed for shore after a busy night of fishing. Newly in charge of the family fishing business, they were already thinking ahead to the day when their own four sons would become fishermen and carry on the family tradition.
And in the Bethlehem stable the young father and young mother reviewed the unbelievable series of events that had taken them miles from home and led them to unusual but comfortably quiet quarters despite the crowds that thronged their ancestral city. Searching each other’s faces with weary glances, they could only wonder what would happen next. The healthy young baby gave a sigh and the mother reached out instinctively to rock the manger. The father fell asleep, weary.
Yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.