The shepherds came to the manger, actors who play one brief scene and then vanish. Luke tells us they returned, "glorifying and praising God for all they had seen and heard, as it had been told them." Beyond that, we know nothing of their later lives. Yet does any person meet the living Christ and remain unchanged?

Aye, they said we missed it. "Vie missed it," they said, and they were right.

We were out in the fields, five of us, with the sheep, and it was a chilly night. I had the early watch; the sheep were all settled down.

About midnight I woke Jeremy -it was his watch. I wrapped up in my robe and was just about asleep when a bright light shone in my face. “What’s that?" I muttered. “Can’t a man get any rest? “I rolled over and shut my eyes. There was a murmur of voices. Jeremy shoo…