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Welcome to Day 2296 of Wisdom-Trek. Thank you for joining me. This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom The Characters of Christmas-4 The Song of the Angel \u2013 Daily Wisdom Putnam Church Message \u2013 12/18/2022 The Characters of Christmas: The Song of the Angels \xa0 Last week we continued with our third Advent series character as we explored Mary, the Simple Girl at the Center of Everything \xa0 Today, we continue with our fourth Advent series character as we listen to The Song of the Angels Our initial scripture for today is Luke 2:8-15, on page 1591 in the pew Bible. Follow along as I read. \xa08\xa0And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.\xa09\xa0An angel\xa0of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.\xa010\xa0But the angel said to them, \u201cDo not be afraid.\xa0I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.\xa011\xa0Today in the town of David, a Savior\xa0has been born to you; he is the Messiah,\xa0the Lord.\xa012\xa0This will be a sign\xa0to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.\u201d 13\xa0Suddenly, a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 14\xa0\u201cGlory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace\xa0to those on whom his favor rests.\u201d 15\xa0When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, \u201cLet\u2019s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.\u201d \xa0 There is one character\u2014or rather, a series of characters\u2014hovering over the Christmas story. They are not quite human, but not quite divine, and sometimes they seem to float in the background, and at other times, they come to the foreground, announcing the good news of the birth of Jesus. We cannot step into any of the incarnation narratives in Scripture without running into them: the angels. (messengers) Heavenly beings of the unseen realm, a variety of beauty. \xa0 An angel named Gabriel first shows up in the temple while a stunned priest named Zechariah is minding his business lighting the incense on the altar (Luke 1:11-19). As Zechariah trembles, dumbfounded, the angel announces that Zechariah's wife, Elizabeth, will soon conceive a special, Elijah-like son, John the Baptizer. \xa0 Six months later, Gabriel shows up in the home of a poor teenager named Mary. Here the angel announces an even more impossible conception: a child by this young virgin, the Son of God. And not once, but twice, an angel was sent to reassure Mary's not-so-sure husband that this conception was indeed of God and not the result of her infidelity (proving that sometimes thick-headed husbands require angels to work overtime.) Angels were the ones who filled a normally quiet Bethlehem sky and hillside one night, hovering and standing among a shepherd's field, announcing to these lowly men that something big and extraordinary was happening in their sleepy town. The first Christmas pageant was not written by songwriters in Nashville, but by messengers from heaven. \xa0 Angels didn't just announce the good news. God also sent...