The shepherds are relatively obscure actors in this story. We don’t know their names. We’re not sure if they are hired hands or tending their own flocks. They hear the angel’s announcement of Jesus’ birth. They run to find Jesus. And after they return to their flocks, we don’t hear from them again.

Even so, the shepherds pull me further into this story. They begin in a rather ordinary space, “living out in the fields” with their sheep. When the angel suddenly appears, they are terrified! Who wouldn’t be? Nothing could have prepared them to meet angels shining the light of God’s glory in the middle of a field at night. Then quickly they move from terror to wonder to delight and finally to joyful worship. By the end of the night, the shepherds are the first human messengers to share the good news of Jesus’ birth! Like the people whom the shepherds first told about Jesus, I am amazed at what I hear.

After the angelic choir disappears, the shepherds urge each other: “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” What else could they do? As I read this story again, I find myself responding to the shepherds: “Yes! Let’s go and see, looking into the amazing good news of the child who has been born in Bethlehem!”