“The End of the World is Near,” or so said the sandwich board sign the old man paraded around in day in and day out. And yet, the end didn’t come and no one took the old man seriously, not anymore, anyway. They’d waited so long. They’d been so patient. But now they were growing old and the promised messiah still hadn’t returned. The end hadn’t come. The vengeance of the Lord was still “out there” somewhere. It’s hard to stay vigilant when the days grow long and the nights are longer. Most of the world had stopped looking, waiting, and watching when the child was born on a sidestreet in the middle of nowhere.