There was nothing spectacular about his birth, nothing even that should draw us to Him, and to confound things further, the good news was first announced to the shepherds. Shepherds in Near Eastern Palestinian culture, occupied the lowest rung of the social order. What was once a noble family business in King David's time, shepherds were now considered dirty, depraved, as lowly and as outcast as the tax collector. And yet God chose to reveal the good news of incarnational love first, to the most maligned and marginalized.

There was nothing spectacular about his birth, nothing even that should draw us to Him, and to confound things further, the good news was first announced to the shepherds. Shepherds in Near Eastern Palestinian culture, occupied the lowest rung of the social order. What was once a noble family business in King David's time, shepherds were now considered dirty, depraved, as lowly and as outcast as the tax collector. And yet God chose to reveal the good news of incarnational love first, to the most maligned and marginalized.

If we're being honest, angels are often relegated to the fanciful world of children, to games of make-believe, to the saccharine stuff of fairy tales. But perhaps the spirit of Christmas is to recapture our childlike imagination. Children are more attuned to the supernatural, the liminal threshold between the temporal and eternal, earthly and ethereal, what the Irish call “thin places.” Children catch glimpses of angels because they are paying attention.

May we this Advent be expectant like Mary, as we wait the arrival of hope, being born in us anew. May we be like the prophets before her who look at a wasteland, and despite all evidence to the contrary, can see a wellspring rising up. May we believe that God quenches thirst in the wilderness still. And like Ezekiel, may we know that we too can prophesy over a valley of dry bones & watch them dance to life.