The Night Shift That Changed Everything

In 2018, a nurse named Rosa Delgado was working the overnight shift at a hospital in San Antonio when a colleague rushed in and said, "You have to come see this — there's a baby in the ER who was left on the firehouse doorstep, and she's perfect." Rosa could have stayed at her station. She had charts to finish, rounds to complete. But something in her colleague's voice made her set down her clipboard and go.

What she found in that bassinet changed the trajectory of her life. Within a year, Rosa had adopted that little girl. She still tells anyone who will listen about the night she almost didn't walk down the hallway.

That is exactly what happened with the shepherds in Luke's Gospel. They were working the night shift — the literal night shift, keeping watch over their flocks — when the announcement came. And notice their response: "Let us go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened." They didn't deliberate. They didn't send one shepherd ahead to verify the angels' report. They went immediately, all of them, and what they found in that manger reordered everything.

Then they did what every person does when they have truly encountered something holy — they could not stop talking about it. Mary, for her part, held it all close, turning each detail over in her heart like a stone worn smooth by water.

The Almighty does not force us down the hallway. He announces, He invites, and then He waits to see if we will set down our clipboards and go.