One listens to a cricket singing in his field and considers that he has no knowledge of other crickets in other fields, some far away, some nearby. He has no knowledge even of the cricket in the field across the road. His world is one patch of weeds, and his lifetime, a single summer.
One thinks of ancient man, with no knowledge of countries and continents across the seas. His own little community is his world. He knows no other.
One thinks of the worlds unknown to us, of the outer limits of the universe about which we know next to nothing. This little ball of mud, our whole universe, and our whole lifetime, these few years. God has kept some greater knowledge in reserve for us in the future.
But once in a while, God opens a window in that larger eternal, heavenly world. He opened such a window at Bethlehem, when shepherds watching their flocks at night were visited by the angel. It is in their statement "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about" that opened the window to them, and to us, of a world of heavenly messengers who do God's bidding, a world of peace, and a world where all glory is given to God, all accomplished through the birth of a single child, Christ the Lord.
