“Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

Luke 2:14

Gloria, in excelsis Deo!

What a wonderful Christmas carol, exclaiming the excitement of Jesus’ birth!

We don’t know how the angels brought the good news, singing or speaking or a combination but I imagine they were exuberant.

Whenever a baby is born the message is passed along with excitement. Parents pass it to grandparents who pass it to aunts and uncles and so on. Everyone is excited about the new life that has entered the world.

The angels weren’t talking about any baby though, this was a king! This was the Lord, the king of kings. How exciting!

They didn’t bring their message to other kings though, they came to shepherds. Lowly, dirty and probably the last ones to know anything. They got the message first.

This has always been one of my favourite parts of the Christmas story.

It’s almost as if God looked around and said, “those guys down there, they need to know first because they are so often forgotten and Jesus was born for the forgotten. Let’s send some angels to proclaim the great news!” I’m sure God uses more eloquent speech but you get my idea. Jesus was sent for everyone, the lost, the lonely, the wise, the brave, everyone!

And that’s what the angels were proclaiming. Telling the shepherds to get up and go see the new baby. No ticket, no red carpet, no need to wash your face. Go see the wonderful thing that happened in Bethlehem.

So I hope you hear the angels singing too. I hope you can join in their song of joy because a wonderful thing happened. And it happened for all of us!

Proclaim it this week, sing joyfully and remind everyone what Christmas Day really means!