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YOU know it’s Christmas when you see the shepherds. In first century Palestine, shepherds stood on the bottom rung of the social ladder sharing the same status as the collaborating tax collectors. Some interpreters cite the Mishnah, Judaism’s written record of the oral law, as evidence of the lowly status given to these rural dwellers. One passage describes them as “incompetent”; another says no one should ever feel obligated to rescue a shepherd who has fallen into a pit – an unfortunate contrast to the sheep they cared for. But the choice of shepherds reflects how God has a soft spot for those whom the world considers to be unlikely bearers of good news.