Venting his fury at a potential rival, Herod plays a percentages game: he spreads the net of his anger widely; kills every boy under two in order to ensure he kills just one. He fails. Fury and anger usually do - though that is scant consolation to the mourning families of the innocent who suffer. Meanwhile Jesus, the Saviour who is saved, is visited by unlikely people: in this case, shepherds and foreign rulers.
 
The shepherds, virtual outcasts in their own society and looked upon with grave suspicion, hear a song of peace. It is deeply attractive, and it sends them to Bethlehem.
 
The wise men have followed a hunch in the form of a star. They are about to learn that all their maps are wrong. They will return by a different route.
 
Tyrants like Herod still strut about the world today, their vanity and hubris still causing havoc and misery. But the door of the stable at Bethlehem still stands open for those who long for peace and those prepared to have their lives redirected.
 
Might you be one of them?
 
Have an interesting Christmas!

Rt Revd Stephen Cottrell
Bishop of Chelmsford