Sunday, December 29, 2013

A Christmas Story

The Dog in the Manger
or
What Norman Saw

Merry Christmas Hannah and Abby

A story by Pop Pop – your Grandfather
Terry Davis Christmas 2013

This is a story about a wee little dog who lived long ago and far away in a town named Bethlehem. I don't know what the dog's name was but I am going to call him Norman because you remember Norman before he got sick and died. This Norman was a very tiny dog, nothing like Zee, more the size of Norman or our Dylan. He was the runt of the litter and the rest of his brothers and sisters were much bigger than he was and always pushed him around. The innkeeper and his wife often complained that Norman was useless, more trouble than he was worth, it was just a good thing he didn't eat very much or they would have gotten rid of him in a minute.

The bigger dogs all had work to do, some of them guarded the inn and the stables, most of them helped the shepherds take care of the sheep, kept them from straying. When the shepherds needed to move them to greener pastures the dogs would run around them and nip at the heels of the sheep that were lagging behind or going in the wrong direction. Norman tried helping but when he yapped at a sheep and bit its leg the sheep kicked him back about three feet. He was sore for days. He decided that herding sheep was not something he was good at. The only thing he was good for was chasing the rats out of the stable, and to tell the truth the cats were bigger and faster and killed and ate many more rats than Norman did.

But this night the inn was full. A mean king far away in Rome ordered everyone to travel home to the place where their family lived to be counted and enrolled for the census. The king said he wanted to know how many people he ruled. He probably did want to brag that no other king had a bigger empire than he did, but every one knew the real purpose of the census was to make sure that no one was missed by the the tax collectors.

It was fun having the inn full, there was a big meal on the table and lots of people to drop food on the floor that a little dog could eat. Norman would bark at the guests and chase their children around the courtyard and up and down the halls. Some of the children thought he was a lot of fun, but others were afraid of little yappy dogs and cried to their mothers who complained to the innkeeper, and the innkeeper's wife grabbed little Norman and tossed him out the back door and told him to be useful for once in his life and chase the rats in the stable. That's what he did for a while, even caught one and shook it to death. He tried eating it like the cats did, but the hairy rat tasted nasty to him so he left it for the cats. He got tired of chasing rats and dodging the feet of the big horses and donkeys that travelers had put in the stable so he found the one stall that had no animal tied up in it, lay down in the straw and fell asleep, and this is the story of what Norman saw in his own words.

When I woke up it was dark outside and the animals were all peaceful and some of them had already fallen asleep when there was some commotion in the stable and in comes a donkey, a man and a woman who looked very pregnant. The woman was very upset; it had been a long journey to get here from wherever they lived and they were all very tired, the donkey was exhausted from carrying the woman all that way, she was heavy with the baby she was going to have. The man had walked all the way and he was tired and the woman, well pregnant women are always tired and sometimes cross. She was fussing at her husband:

Joe, you said we were going to stay with your cousin, but we get here and the house was full of other relatives and they said they couldn't make room for us. I noticed they made room for your rich aunt Tilly, thinking they might inherit something from her. So they send us to the inn and the innkeeper says there is no room in the inn. I bet if you had more money they would have found a place for us. Why didn't you accept the last job the Romans offered you? Do you think you are too good to work for the Romans.”

The man says “Mary, do you know what they wanted me to build? A cross, that is what they wanted to pay me to build, a cross on which they would nail up a criminal and leave him to die a painful death. I would never do that no matter how much money they paid me. Suppose it was your son did something wrong and they crucified him. Whoever they wanted to execute was some mother's son. I would have no part of it.” Mary got all teary eyed and said, “Joe – you are a good man, I'm sorry.”

Then Mary saw me and said, “After all this there is a dog in the manger – I was going to use that as a bed for the baby.” Joseph shooed me out of the manger and filled it with nice clean straw and I went into the far corner and went to sleep. Before long the noise woke me up again. First Mary was moaning and telling Joe that the baby was coming, and before long she began to scream. I didn't know what that was all about, I had never seen a person be born, but I have seen momma dogs have puppies and they never made this much fuss, and they might pop out four or five or some times 8 of us without ever being as loud as Mary was being, but when finally she pushed the baby out I saw what she was hollering about. The baby was huge, bigger than me and I'm five winters old. Mary she nursed her baby for a while and talked to him, told him his name was Jesus. That means God will save his people, she said.

I could tell that Mary was absolutely worn out, but every time she put the baby down in the manger he started to cry. I think he was cold. Mary had wrapped him up in a thin little blanket, but the stable was getting awful cold in the middle of the night with the wind blowing out side. Joseph said where is that little dog that was here earlier, so I ran over to where he was, he scooped me up and put me down right next to the Jesus child and said you keep the baby warm and don't let any rats climb up here and nibble at his fingers and nose. He knew I was good at chasing rats, and he knew that dogs were nice and warm because of our body heat and our fur. So I wasn't useless at all, I was good at keeping the baby warm and safe. The little baby stuck his little hands in my fur and I snuggled up close to him and we kept warm and soon he was asleep in the hay. I kept awake to guard him from any of the nasty rats in the stable and Mary and Joseph they went to sleep too.

I thought the rest of the night would be peaceful, but just when everyone had gotten to sleep there was another commotion in the stable and in come a bunch of rough looking men into the stable. They brought a different smell into the stable, they didn't smell like horses and donkeys. Then I remembered trying to herd sheep and how the sheep smelled and I knew they were shepherds 'cause they smelled like their sheep. Dogs have very good noses you know.


The shepherds had a strange and wonderful story to tell. They said they had been out on the hillside with the sheep and suddenly the sky lit up and they heard sweet singing and saw a whole bunch of God's angels and one of the angels said “Do not be afraid for I bring you good news of great joy, for unto you is born this day in the city of David a savior who is Christ the Lord. This is how you will know who he is, he will be wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger. Then all of the angels began to sing sweetly “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and good will for all people whom God loves.” Well there was Mary's baby lying in a manger swaddled in his blanket. (I'd gone back to my corner when the crowd came in). So the shepherds had found things just like the angel had said. They knelt down and prayed and thanked God that God had visited and redeemed his people (what ever that meant). They went back to their sheep singing as they went the song that the angels sang. I jumped back into the manger to do my job keeping the baby warm, but now I knew he was a very special child.

Mary and Joe held each other and cried and talked to each other about the angels. Mary said remember I told you about the angel Gabriel visiting me before I got pregnant and you didn't believe me until an angel appeared to you in a dream and told you to marry me. Well now the angels have come again and we know this is a very special child. I felt so very proud of myself that I was not useless any more, at least for a few days I had a job to do, to guard and keep this special child warm.

A few days later they left the stable and said that they were going to stay with Joseph's cousin now the census was completed and the other family had gone home. I didn't see them again until Joseph came back to the stable to get his little donkey and he patted my head and rubbed my fur and told me what a special dog I was and wished I could go with them but they had a long and hard journey ahead of them as they went to Egypt to be safe from mean old king Herod.

I never saw the family again and I often wondered what kind of a boy and what kind of a man this baby Jesus would turn out to be.






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