The following is a story I wrote for the Christmas Eve service. It was my attempt to retell the story of Luke 2:8-21 as if the events had happened in our time.
The story was performed at the service by Mike Lachance.
Shepardson and Sons Overnite Cleaning Services, LLC
It was 2:17 am when it all happened. I remember because I had just checked my phone. I was pushing the dustmop around the grocery section of Dollar Tree—the one over in Davidsville in the Greenfield’s strip mall. My son Nate was following me with the auto scrubber. We usually don’t do the scrubber on Sunday nights, but with all the extra traffic from the holiday season, it really needed it. Jimmy was running the floor buffer and Crystal was Windexing the big cooler doors.
Photo by Oliver Hale on Unsplash
I guess I should introduce myself. I’m Ben Shepardson, owner of Shepardson and Son’s Overnite Cleaning Services, LLC. Our slogan is “We clean while you dream.” I only have the one son, Nate, working with me, but it sounds better to say “Shepardson and Sons” than “Shepardson and Son.” Anyway.
Nate has anxiety issues and could never really handle a daytime job with all them people around. With me, he gets to work nights and not have to worry about seeing too many people. And the money is decent. No matter how bad the economy is, buildings still get dirty and still gotta be cleaned. We always have more work than we can handle.
The hardest part is finding good help. I took a chance on Jimmy even though he’s an ex-con, but he’s worked out good so far. He always shows up early, and apart from the smoke breaks, he works like a machine. He’s divorced and he doesn’t see his kids, so he doesn’t mind sleeping all day. Crystal, she’s given me some headaches, but I feel sorry for her. I mean, DCF told her she has to work if she wants to keep custody of her two kids, but sometimes the night daycare is closed or her kids are sick, so she has to call in. And sometimes the suboxone does a number on her system (if you know what I mean) so she can’t really pull her weight. I usually give her the light duty stuff.
I guess most people who end up in my business aren’t your typical clean-cut daytime employees that people want to see working at the bank or the doctor’s office. But, hey, as my old man used to say, there’s a place for everyone. He was the custodian up at the high school and when I was old enough, the school hired me to help him. So I did learn something in school, even though I never technically graduated.
So anyway, it was 2:17 am on Sunday night. Or I guess early Monday morning. I knew there were only the four of us in the building. I noticed something bright out of the corner of my eye, and I looked up and it was a person standing right there. My first thought was, “Is it Bruce, the store manager? He’s the only other person with a key to the building.” But as soon as I really looked at him him—I guess it was a him—I realized “Definitely not Bruce.” He was dressed all in white, and he had this crazy light coming out of him. Imagine an outfit made completely out of LEDs. But brighter. And this light—it wasn’t your normal light. I felt like it was shining right through me and suddenly I felt dirty—like when you shine a blacklight on the floor and see all junk you couldn’t see in regular light. That’s what scared me the most. I dropped to my knees. I couldn’t help it.
I must have yelled because Jimmy and Crystal both come running over to see what the heck was going on. When Crystal sees the guy she screams and throws her Windex bottle up in the air. Jimmy said some words that I probably shouldn’t’ repeat in a church, then he starts staggering backward and falls on top of a big display of chips and salsa. Nate is just standing there behind the auto scrubber like a deer in the headlights.
The guy holds out his hands, like an alien saying “I come in peace.” And he says “Do not be afraid.” By which I knew he meant “I’m not going to kill you” but also, “I know my light makes you squirm in your socks, but it’s gonna be OK.”
That calmed us down a little. I looked back and saw Jimmy sitting in a pile of chip bags. Crystal was doubled over holding her stomach. Nate was leaning onto the auto scrubber trying not to faint.
The LED guy gave us a minute to relax, if that was possible. Then he says something else. “I come with good news for you and for all people. Today, in Davidsville, a Savior has been born to you. He is the Messiah that you have been waiting for. He is the Lord.”
I was having trouble wrapping my head around all he was saying. Wouldn’t you? But all of a sudden I realized who this guy was: an angel. You know, a messenger from God. And just as my brain is starting to handle that, he keeps talking like he’s got a message to deliver no matter what. He says that we were chosen to be the first ones to visit this baby. Then he tells us that we’ll find him wrapped in a towel, lying in a cardboard box in the back room of a little diner downtown. “Okay…” I thought to myself “that’s weirdly specific.” But I wasn’t about to say that out loud to LED angel guy.
As soon as he finishes his speech, I kid you not, it gets even crazier. We hear this rushing sound like a waterfall, and at the same time the ceiling of the Dollar Tree peels back, and we see like a thousand more angels up there, like human-sized fireflies, all glowing and dancing back and forth like it’s an angel party. Their voices were the sweetest sound I’ve ever heard, and I could hear words like “Praise God!” and “Glory to God in the highest, and peace to people on earth!”
I don’t know how long this went on exactly, us standing in Dollar Tree gawking up through a portal to heaven. It could have been an hour. It could have been a minute. But it was pure joy. Then the portal closed up and the angel voices faded and the room came back into focus, with just the overhead fluorescent lights buzzing and the big coolers humming quietly and smell of Windex and floor wax and the shelves of merchandise all around.
None of us said anything for a minute. Jimmy struggled to his feet and brushed chip crumbs off his pants. Nate’s mouth was hanging open. Crystal was blinking. Then we did something that we’d never done the four of us together. We all started laughing. I think some of the joy from that angel party must have rained down on us. Crystal had a real, full smile like I’ve never seen on her face before. Jimmy was giggling like a little kid. Nate’s eyes were brighter than ever.
We left our stuff in the store and jumped the van to go find this baby. Crystal suggested we try the diner called Mary’s, because her mom used to work there. So I said OK, Mary’s Diner it is. We pulled in and saw a light in the back. I knocked on the back door, and eventually the door cracked open and a young man peeked out. I just said something like, “The angels sent us to see the baby.” Looking back, that could’ve been really awkward if we had the wrong place. But he just smiled and let us in like we were the pizza delivery guys and he was expecting us. So we followed him in quietly, and sure enough, just like the angel said, there was the baby. He was swaddled in a white kitchen towel, laying there a carboard box—the kind that food gets delivered in. Lying next to him on a pile of chair cushions was the mother, a teenage girl. It still smelled like blood and birth stuff in there, and I thought, “Woah, we’re literally the first ones.” We knelt down around the baby and just stared at him sleeping for a while. I thought, “So this is the Savior of the world?” I wasn’t even sure exactly what that meant. But I knew this kid was special if the angels got that excited about him.
The next day I turned on the news and I checked my phone, because I’m thinking this must have been some kind of worldwide announcement, right? If God went to the trouble of sending angels to me and my cleaning crew, then of course he must’ve sent some to other people. I kept the news on for a while, but nothing. I scrolled through Facebook, but nothing. Just all the usual stuff. Not so much as one headline about an angel, or a UFO sighting, or anything.
I was like, “Really? Why didn’t God send his angels to the White House, or to Fox News, or to an NFL game? Why me, and Nate and Jimmy and Crystal, in the back of the Dollar Tree?”
I mean, what have I done to deserve that?
I guess I’ll never know the answer to that question.
Well, me and Nate and Jimmy and Crystal talked it over, and we decided that since the angels came to us, then it must be our job to tell the story. So that’s why I’m here tonight. To tell you the good news, that the Savior has been born. If you don’t believe me, I get it. I’m just the cleaner guy. But I will say this, I remember those words the angel spoke, that this good news is for all people. I guess that includes people like me.
