Since this is the last time I’ll be blogging before Christmas, I am sharing Steve Case’s final two Advent vignettes today.

The fourth vignette is to a shepherd named Malachi from his insurance company regarding his lost sheep. This one is mostly for fun, though it is followed up–like the others–with Scripture and prayer.

It seems the insurance company is denying this man’s claim for a variety of reasons:

• Shepherding at night isn’t covered,
• They can’t recognize one religion over the other,
• It’s possible the whole incident is a hallucination brought on by imbibing, and,
• Acts of God are definitely not covered.

Personally, I would like to think that if God sent the angel to the shepherds, which encouraged them to visit the newborn King, all the sheep would remain safe, like I portrayed in Little Shepherd; but this vignette is sure to get some laughs from everyone.

The Christmas Eve vignette shares the Christmas story from the point of view of the innkeeper’s wife. In this version of the story, the innkeeper’s wife, which Case has named Anna, says she was the one who told her husband to put a man and his very pregnant wife in the stable. She then relays how the shepherds came to look for the baby, followed by three rich men. Then the crowds began gathering to see this family and Anna knew there was something different about this man, his wife, and newly born child.

There are definitely liberties taken with the Christmas story in Case’s vignettes (even more than simply dismissing these people were emailing one another), but overall he captures the essence of what people must have been feeling as these events unfolded. All of them knew–even if they didn’t totally understand–this was a momentous, miraculous event unlike anything the world had ever seen.

As you spend the final days of Advent preparing your heart for Jesus, I hope, you, too, feel the power, love, and joy of the miracle that is Christmas.

Many blessings,