In my little apartment, my kids and I read the Christmas story this year. Mary and Joseph travel to Bethlehem Mary gives birth to the baby Jesus in the animal shelter.
Angels appear to the shepherds, singing a chorus of praise.
The shepherds go see this, and then become the first witnesses in the community. To do this required Senate approval, which required the census of which we speak. Caesar Augustus was known for having created and 'enforced peace' in the Empire, but the true Prince of Peace would come and offer that quiet and true peace to the deepest recesses of human hearts and lives. The first human witnesses and evangelists were shepherds, one of the marginalized outcasts of Israel. They wrote a commentary on Isaiah that Jerome quotes from occasionally.