"Glory to God in the Highest"

Here's an instant replay of what happened in worship:

We thought about the angel appearances we have already read - Zechariah, Mary and Joseph. Each of those people had a central role in the unfolding of God's plan. They would be the parents of two extraordinary babies.
We saw how the next angelic appearance - the angels delivering news to the shepherds - was to people who were totally unrelated and uninvolved in the story. But Luke 2:8-20 tells us that the shepherds were visited not by one angel, but by a whole sky-full of them!
We tried to imagine what that concert must have been like - the sky full of singing angels. We know from the book of Revelation that angels are constantly worshipping around the throne of God, so when the angels heard that God was coming to earth, they moved their worship there, too.
We wondered why the shepherds - dirty, smelly folks working the night shift - were the ones who got front row seats to the greatest concert ever. Luke's Gospel tells us that Jesus came for the least, the last and the lost. Even from his birth, the Good News of Jesus was proclaimed to those whom others might overlook.
We realized that when we sing in church, our voices are simply joining the voices of the angels who have been worshipping God since time began. We sang, "Gloria, Alleluia!" and listened very carefully to hear the angels singing with us.
We celebrated communion around the table of love.