This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”
(Luke 2.12-14 NRSV)
Sunday evening, October 30, 1938, between the hours of eight and nine o'clock, millions of Americans were tuned to the CBS radio network. They heard an announcer's voice breaking into the music of an orchestra: "Ladies and gentlemen, we interrupt our program of dance music to bring you a special bulletin from the Intercontinental Radio News." Then, during the next hour, the audience was stunned to hear a series of increasingly hysterical voices narrating an invasion of Martian monsters, landing first on a New Jersey farm, then unleashing poisonous gases over New York City.

The broken, anguished voice of an announcer continued: "Avoid bridges to Long Island--hopelessly jammed. All communication with Jersey shore closed.....No more defenses. Our army wiped out...artillery, air force, everything wiped out. This may be the last broadcast."

Later they learned that they had been listening to the Orson Welles-Mercury Theatre production of War of the Worlds. It has been estimated that, of the six million people who heard the broadcast, no fewer than one million experienced serious levels of distress. Thousands were thrown into absolute panic. Their panic is understandable. The future is uncertain. We simply do not know what lies ahead--what might happen next.

Unless we come to the manger.

Dear God, draw me close to the manger. Amen.

Ron Newhouse

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