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.
