Oh Holy Night.

Here is a little story with a bit of a twist on the old tradition. Hope you like it.

Oh Holy Night.

It was a cold, dark night when he went out to borrow live coals to light a fire. He went from house to house knocking on doors and as he knocked he called out,

“Dear friends help me, my wife has just given birth to our child and I must make a fire to warm the little one”

However, it was very late and all his neighbours were asleep. No one answered his desperate call.

He walked and walked and at last he saw the light of a fire far into the distance. He went towards it and when he arrived he saw that the fire was a camp fire. There were a lot of sheep sleeping around the fire and an old shepherd sat and watched over the flock.

As he got nearer he saw that there were also three very big dogs lay sleeping by the shepherd’s feet. The dogs woke up as he approached and they opened their great big powerful jaws as if they were going to start barking and growling at him but not a sound was heard. He saw the hairs on their back stand up and their long sharp fangs glistened in the firelight. They ran towards him, he felt one of the dogs bite at his legs and one grabbed his hand, the other seized him by the throat. Strangely their teeth caused him no harm.

The man wished to go near the fire to get what he needed but the sheep lay so close together that he couldn’t get past them. He stepped onto their backs and walked over them and up to the fire. Not one of the animals woke up or even moved. When he had almost reached the fire the shepherd looked up. He was a bad tempered old man, unfriendly and nasty with it. The shepherd saw the stranger going towards the fire and reaching for the long spiked staff he used to protect his sheep from wolves, he threw it at the stranger. Before the staff reached him it seemed to turn off to one side and it flew past him and landed far off into the darkness.

The stranger spoke to the shepherd,

“Good shepherd, help me. Let me take a little of your fire for my wife has just given birth to a child and I must make a fire to warm her and the little one” he said

The shepherd really wanted to say no but he began to think. If the dogs couldn’t hurt him, the sheep had not run from him and the staff failed to strike him then maybe there was more to this stranger than he first thought. He felt a little afraid and didn’t dare refuse him his little piece of fire.

“Take as much as you need” he said to the stranger.

However, the fire was nearly burnt out, there were no logs or branches left only a big heap of live coals and the stranger had no spade or shovel to carry them with. When the shepherd saw this he smiled a wicked smile for he was glad that the stranger wouldn’t be able to carry away any of his coals.

“Well go on, take what you need” he said with a surly look upon his face.

But the stranger bent down and picked up the red hot coals with his bare hands and put them in his pocket. He didn’t burn his hands nor scorch his coat. He just carried them away as if they were just nuts or apples. When the cruel and hard hearted shepherd saw this he began to wonder to himself,

“What kind of night is this, when dogs do not bite, sheep are not scared, and staffs do not kill”

He called the stranger back and said to him

“What kind of night is this and why is it that all things show you compassion”

The stranger replied,

“I cannot tell you if you yourself do not see it” and he began to walk away as he wished to get back to his wife and child.

The shepherd refused to accept his answer and so he followed the stranger until he came to the place where he lived. Then the shepherd saw that the stranger didn’t have so much as a shed or a hovel to live in. His wife and new born child were lying in a mountain grotto where there was nothing except the cold bare stone walls.

The shepherd thought that the poor innocent child might freeze to death there in the grotto and even though he was a hard man he was touched and thought he would like to help them. He carried a knapsack upon his back and from it he took a soft white sheepskin and gave it to the strange man and said that he should let the child sleep on it.

A strange thing happened, for as soon as he showed that he too could be merciful and kind his eyes were suddenly opened. He now saw what he had been unable to see before he now heard what he could not have heard before.  He saw that all around him stood a ring of little silver winged angels and that each of them held a stringed instrument. They were all singing that tonight a saviour had been born who would redeem the world. Then he understood how all things were so happy this night and how all things were possible. But it wasn’t just around the shepherd that there were angels, the shepherd saw them everywhere. They were inside the grotto, outside on the mountain side, they flew under the heavens and they came marching in great hoards and as they passed they paused and bowed to the child.

There was such happiness in their music and song and all of this the shepherd saw on this dark night where before he saw nothing. He was so happy because his eyes had been opened and he fell to his knees and gave thanks to his god.  What the shepherd saw that Holy Night you may also see for the angels fly down from heaven every Christmas Eve if only you can see them. But in order to do this you must remember that you will not see this by the light of a candle or a lamp, it will not be seen by the light of the sun or the moon. You will only see what the shepherd saw if you take the blinkers from your eyes and see the glory that is all around you.