The Call of an Angel (short story)
A Christmas story for children
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‘Tis the season, of course, so I wanted to share a children’s Christmas story of my own composition. It’s written as the text for as a picture book, which is why there are many short paragraphs and less descriptive prose than a typical short story.
“Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” Matthew 6:33
Long ago in a land called Judea there lived two young shepherds named Daniel and Ezra. Following tradition, their older brothers had entrusted them with the family flocks. Each boy was eager to prove himself worthy of the responsibility.
Daniel and Ezra were deeply loyal to their duties. They carefully guided their sheep to fresh pastures and found pools of revitalizing water for them to drink.
With sling, rod, and staff, they bravely fought off threatening hyenas and jackals and found safety for their flocks in caves.
When the sheep were frightened, they sang soothing songs or played sweet melodies on their flutes.
And every night, they would count their charges, calling each by name to make sure every sheep was accounted for from the bellwether to the smallest lamb. For their flocks were very important to each family’s well-being.
Daniel and Ezra were also good friends. They watched each other’s flocks when one retrieved a stray. They helped each other build sheepfolds from the thickets and twigs. And when they were away from home for days at a time, they would share their bread, cheese, olives, and dried dates.
But Ezra was jealous of Daniel. Daniel’s flock was larger and his sheep more robust. Daniel’s sheep produced more wool at the last shearing, and people said it was some of the finest wool they'd felt. Daniel’s family, too, was wealthier and held in higher esteem by their village.
Secretly, Ezra wished that Daniel would make a mistake with his flock, so that Ezra would be thought the better shepherd. He felt ashamed for feeling this way about his friend, but he couldn't overcome his envy.
One clear night, while Daniel and Ezra watched their grazing flocks, a strange light appeared nearby. Nudging their sheep away from the glow, their staves at the ready, they approached cautiously.
“What do you think it is?” asked Ezra.
“I don’t know,” replied Daniel. “But I won’t let it harm my sheep!”
“Nor will I,” said Ezra, “for father always says there’s nothing more important than keeping them safe!”
Slowly the light took the form of a radiant angel. Beautiful it was, but also terrifying, like lightning from a thundercloud. The boys held back, almost shaking with fright.
Then the angel spoke. “Fear not,” it said, with a calming voice and a gentle gesture. “Fear not! For behold, I bring you tidings of great joy! Come, follow, and I will show you!”
The angel turned and drifted toward a hill overlooking the nearby town of Bethlehem.
Drawn by the angel's glory and its promise, Daniel rose to follow.
"“No, don’t!” exclaimed Ezra, holding Daniel back. “You must stay with your sheep!”
“I know, Ezra,” replied Daniel, tugging himself free. “My father and brothers are as stern as yours. But my heart tells me I must follow this messenger of God.”
Leaving the stunned Ezra behind, Daniel ran after the swiftly moving angel. His heart was full of wonder, but yet troubled. “Oh Lord,” he prayed, “I will surely be punished for leaving my flock, even shorn of my duties.” Images of an impoverished future came to his mind. “Maybe I’ll be sent only to glean scraps from the harvested fields. And yet….” His heart grew warm and confident. “I must know the tidings!”
Meanwhile, Ezra just shook his head. “What a fool,” he muttered, but then smiled to himself. “But what good fortune for me! Daniel won’t be trusted. Perhaps his father will give his flock to me and I’ll become the most important shepherd in our village. Perhaps I will even marry Daniel’s sister and one day manage the affairs of both families!”
So scheming, Ezra led his sheep further from the valley but kept an eye on Daniel’s. “If danger comes,” he planned, “I’ll defend them myself and prove my worth!”
* * *
Still anxious, Daniel had reached the top of the hill. The angel greeted him. “Behold!” it said, pointing to Bethlehem.
Daniel’s eyes met a marvelous sight—a heavenly glow radiated from a stable on the edge of the town, and high above shone a new star unlike any he’d ever seen.
“What is it?” he asked.
“Behold, I bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be not only to all Judea, and all Palestine, but even unto the Romans and all peoples in faraway lands. For born this day, there, in the City of David, is a Savior, a Christ drawn to earth by the love of those, like you, who choose God above all else. This Christ will teach you how to love God ever more fully, with all your heart and mind and soul and strength. And he will teach you how to love one another as our Heavenly Father loves us all!”
Daniel knelt in awe, and suddenly many more angels appeared, filling the night with song. “Glory to God in the highest! And on earth, peace and goodwill to all!”
When they vanished, Daniel hastened to the stable and saw the most beautiful newborn child, whom his mother had laid in a manger. The father gently beckoned Daniel to draw near. As he did so, the baby gazed into his eyes, as if blessing him.
Daniel immediately knew he’d made the right choice to follow the angel. God’s call was the highest duty, and God Himself would certainly fulfill Daniel’s lesser duty to his flock.
While Daniel knelt enraptured before the Christ child, Ezra, engrossed by only his own selfish vision of the future, fell asleep. His flock scattered and began to attract wolves and jackels. He awoke only when Daniel returned and drove the predators away with shouts and stones, but not before two of Ezra’s sheep had been taken.
“Oh, no, no!” Ezra lamented, realizing his own foolishness. “Never again will I be trusted to shepherd!”
“Fear not!” Daniel assured him. “Father says that even the best shepherd loses a sheep now and then. Go, my friend, see the child for yourself and you will know freedom from fear. I’ll gather our flocks and guard them while you’re gone.”
Ezra sped away, and Daniel played a new melody on his flute that expressed the new-found joy of his experience that night.
Ezra returned an hour later, with a fullness of heart that had banished not only his fear, but his jealousy. He confessed his scheme to Daniel.
“Daniel,” he said, “though I do not deserve it, please forgive me. You were right to trust God and leave your sheep in his care, just as I was wrong to stay behind with the selfish hope of gain. But what will happen to me now that I’ve lost two sheep?”
“It will be all right,” Daniel assured him. “Here, take one of my lambs into your flock, and let us share the story of the angel and the Christ child come among us. Surely, all our families will want to see him and will understand our neglect!”
Daniel’s prediction proved true, and not only did he and Ezra continue to be entrusted with their flocks but were soon hired to tend sheep for other families as well.
In time, as they grew older, their friendship also grew stronger and their families, even as Ezra had hoped, were united by marriage.
And when they trained their sons to tend the flocks, they once again shared the story of that first Christmas, as they had done many times. “Yes, the sheep are a very important responsibility,” they assured the boys, “But never so important that you should forsake the call of an angel!”
* * *
Afterword: through Jesus’s instruction to “Seek ye first…,” God promises fulfillment of whatever lesser duties and responsibilities we set aside to seek Him and to fulfill Jesus’ commandments to love God and love one another (Matthew 22:37-39 and Mark 12:30-31).
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