Angels

 It must be hard to be an angel

Wherever, whenever they show up in the Christmas story

they spend the first five minutes saying "don't be afraid"

I wonder, idly, what it must be like to be that intimidating

It's hard, at 5ft, to intimidate anyone - I struggle to get a drink in a bar:

to make my voice heard - this Christmas, my parent tells me "I'm not deaf - it's you"

The angels rock choir turns up, excited and unable to contain themselves for joy

and a tight knot of boys with sheep guarding duties gets a look in on cosmic events.

How like the God I try to worship to tell me "don't be afraid" - he knows I need to hear it

And how like God to spill over into the black darkness of our world in a way that my mind can't handle