I AM The Good Shepherd Silent night, Holy night All is calm, all is bright. Mary was pretty young, perhaps as young as 12-13 years old. No experience. Mary and Josef was not in a sterile hospital with a number of nurses around. King Herod was ruling the country at this time and he let his brutal soldiers kill every little boy child up to two years old they could find. The soldiers big needle-sharp swords chop the little babies to pieces. It was a horrible time and it was in the midst of this God became flesh. It was not silent, it was not in peace. In the fields around, shepherds were watching over their flocks, day and night. Same kind of routine, leading their sheep, keeping them safe, watching over them, continuing to count. Run after a sheep that was lost. I read somewere that shepherds were not treated with all the dignity and respect many other professions had. In fact, it was above the lowest common denominator in the ancient world. Some said about shepherds, "you hope your
Living in a city as I am, in Malmo, Sweden, it feels natural to talk about bridges.In the year 2000 we got a bridge over the Sound to Copenhagen, Denmark. A bridge between two nations once fighting each other, now connected.We need to continue to build bridges, between different cultures, ideas, people etc. These bridges are harder to build but necessary in the society we have today.We need these bridges in order to reach people with the "Good news"