Book samples The Curious Sign | Page 29

CS-2016-txt-ART.indd 27 were not my real problem with the nativity story. My real problem was that while this group of shepherds are doing their job in the paddocks close to town, a band of heavenly angels appear to these lads, and according to Luke’s account in the Bible, after declaring the baby to be Christ and Lord, this is what they say: Did you see it? Something about the birth of Jesus is a SIGN! That is what the angels say: “And this will be a sign…” But which bit, and what kind of sign is it? I remember reading this for the first time and thinking hard. What part of this is the actual sign? It could not possibly be the fact that a baby was born in Bethlehem that night. For heaven’s sake, it was census time! There were thousands of people flowing into Bethlehem from all over the nation, and I’m willing to bet that at least a hundred of them would have been heavily AN UNEXPECTED SIGN 27 Review copy only—not for distribution. “And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” (Luke chapter 2, verse 12) 12/09/2016 1:02 PM