Today’s reading was Luke 2:8-20–the well-known passage about the shepherds hearing the Christmas message from the angels. I think that this is my very favorite part of the Christmas story. Maybe it comes from seeing the Charlie Brown Christmas special too many times, but it’s quite a picture the Bible paints with the description of the shepherds in the fields, being greeting first by one angel, and then a multitude of them, (I wonder just how many angels are in a multitude?). The thought of the shepherds dropping everything and running off to see Baby Jesus, and then telling everyone they saw on the way back–it’s the very beginning of the Gospel message being spread! Such a beautiful story, and it gets additional points if read in the old KJV, where it has the added bonus of being extra poetic!