What did the Spanish fireman name his twin boys? — Hose A and Hose B!’ Often when we hear something funny we can’t wait to tell some one else.
Sometimes it’s an exciting piece of news in your own life, which you can’t wait to share — ‘he’s proposed’, ‘I’m pregnant’, ‘I got the job’.
For the shepherds, the birth of Jesus was like the most absurd thing to make you smile and the best news ever, all rolled into one. So, having been to Bethlehem and found Joseph and Mary and the baby laying in a manger just as the angels told them, they could not help it, ‘they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child’ (Luke 2.17 ).
The re-emergence of heavy shepherds
What would you think if you received a letter from your church leaders that read like this? ‘Are church members …