You never know what children are thinking! 

Sometimes their understanding of what they hear is spot on while other times their interpretations are somewhat confused. 

Such was the case with our youngest daughter when she would sing the lyrics to The First Noel. Bless her heart until she was able to read, she was sure the song proclaimed, “The first Noel, the angel did say, was to frighten poor shepherds in fields as they lay”.

Of course the words are, “The first Noel the angel did say was to certain poor shepherds in fields as they lay”.

We surmise the mix up may have occurred with a partial hearing of the biblical account of Christ’s birth found in the gospel of Luke, chapter 2 verses 1-11. “…In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flocks by night. And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened…”

Who knows what might have happened next.  Perhaps she dropped her candy cane on the floor or broke the green crayon she was using to color the shepherd’s fields of grass.  We will never know.  But somehow she missed the rest of the story, the part where the angel says, “Don’t be afraid! I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!” 

Too late! 

All she perceived from the story was young shepherds, alone in a field at night frightened by a big, scary, glowing angel.  Hence, it made perfect sense to her that the angel in The First Noel came to frighten the shepherds. Unfortunately, nothing could have been farther from the truth and I am thankful the error was corrected not too long thereafter.  

It is sad to contemplate how many grown adults are living as my daughter did with misconstrued ideas about God.  In his book, The Purpose of Christmas, author Rick Warren states, “Many people feel that God is secretly out to ‘get’ them – that He is constantly playing a game of ‘Gotcha!’ and just waiting for them to mess up and fail so He can say, ‘I told you so!’”

Like my little girl, they missed the good news of Christmas: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  (John 3:16)  God is not mad at us.  He is mad about us!  That is why the first statement the angel made to the shepherds was, “Don’t be afraid!” 

The verse following John 3:16 says, “God did not send His son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world.” Jesus came to save us, not to scare us and that is good news indeed - news we all can use!