Angels crowded around the small wooden structure, waiting for news from inside. This was, after all, the biggest thing since their creation. No one wanted to miss this. Arabella came out of the stable, staring at the ground. Gabriel rushed up to her and asked, "Well?" It couldn't be good if she couldn't look at him. Had something happened to Mary, or Jesus?
Arabella looked up at him and a wide smile lit up her whole face and the air around her. Angels tended to do that when they were happy. Gabriel started glowing as well. "Woohooooo!" He rocketed into the air and left a trail of happy sparks through the sky. It had worked! Jesus was really here! Oh, there was no way he was keeping this news to himself.
He landed right on the cold coals of the shepherds' campfire. They scrambled back, trying to get away from this guy. But the second they turned around, Gabriel grabbed the backs of their tunics and pulled them back. "Hold your camels! You haven't heard me out yet!" He yanked them back onto the other side of the dying fire and onto their butts. They started crawling backwards in fright.
"You don't have to be scared! I've got good news!" The men stopped trying to get away and gave the stranger a closer look. Confident that they would now listen, Gabriel continued. "I've got news for the whole world! You're not going to believe this!" The shepherds took their hands off the ground and rose into sitting positions.
"Okay," Gabriel muttered as he calmed himself down. "You see that?" he pointed at the lights in the distance. "That's Bethlehem." The shepherds nodded hesitantly. Did this guy think they needed directions or something? "And Christ the Lord was just born there."
The shepherds reeled back for a moment and then started muttering to each other. "Christ? What's this guy talking about?"
"Do you think he got lost?"
"Just who is he anyway?"
A huge light burst from the sky and stopped the whispering dead in its tracks. "Right on time," Gabriel chuckled with a smile on his face. He turned back to the group of skeptics. "If you don't believe me, go and look. He'll be all wrapped up in a blanket and lying in a feed trough. Trust me, you'll know it when you see it."
The star's light was suddenly not alone in the sky as several other angels rocketed down into the midst of the shepherds, grabbed them by the hands, and began dancing around. Whoops filled the clearing as the angels let loose with "Glory to God in the highest!"
The shepherds lost all fear and began rejoicing with the glowing, exuberant teenagers. "Yes, glory to God!" they answered, along with shouts of "Praise Him!" and "Please put me down now."
The angels blasted off one by one, returning to the scene of joy at the stable. But they left whispered goodbyes and "Peace to you and everyone else God loves here" in their wake.
The shepherds followed the many streams of sparks through the sky and saw the small structure where they all seemed to end. They exchanged looks and started running for the apex of the dozens of arcs in the skies.