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Source: The State
Columbia, South Carolina USA
The Lowly Animals
Christmas legend gives voice to beasts
By CAROLYN CLICK
Lexington County farmer Clifford Fisher supplies animals for live area Nativities, including Abraham the camel and Sarah the donkey.
A mystical folk legend tells us that animals speak at midnight on Christmas Eve, as they did on that wondrous night in a stable in Bethlehem.
As the story goes, God gave them the power of speech because he was so moved by the beasts' kind treatment of the baby Jesus, who was born in a manger among the sheep and cattle.
In the 12th century, a writer pondered what those animals might have said, words now sung to a popular English carol.
"I," said the donkey, shaggy and brown,
"I carried His mother uphill and down,
"I carried His mother to Bethlehem town;
"I," said the donkey, shaggy and brown.
Clifford Fisher, a Lexington County businessman and farmer, understands the mysticism that surrounds this night.
He supplies many of the animals for area Nativities and plays, including the long-running "This Man Called Jesus" at Lake Murray Baptist Church.
"The animals are amazing," he said. "I know they should not be doing a lot of the things I asked them to, but I see the Lord guide them down the stage."
He has taught his camel, Abraham, to bow during the nativity scene, and trained donkeys, sheep and cows to behave appropriately during important scenes.
"They completely change their disposition when they are at church, kind of like a kid," he said. "Beyond a shadow of a doubt, they know what part they are playing."
"I," said the cow, all white and red,
"I gave Him my manger for His bed,
"I gave Him hay to pillow His head;
"I," said the cow, all white and red.
The gospel narratives of the birth of Christ do not dwell on the role of the animals, although we cannot think of Mary and Joseph's journey to Bethlehem without the faithful, plodding donkey, or the stable scene without the presence of the gentle farm animals.
But our desire to personify animals, both in the Nativity and in nature, is age-old.
"You can't think of the process of thinking without language," said Hal French, a professor in USC's Department of Religious Studies. "You want to credit them with some linguistic expression."
As humans, we ponder the honor that God accords the animals, he said, to be present at the birth of Jesus and to hail the birth along with the shepherds, Wise Men, and angels.
"It's a beautiful scene."
A recent lectionary reading spoke to the reverence the biblical writers attached to the natural world, said the Rev. Frank Honeycutt, pastor of Ebenezer Lutheran Church. Revelations 5:13 says, "And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, "To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever."
In that passage, the animals "are not talking but they are singing," he said.
"I," said the sheep with curly horn,
"I gave Him my wool for His blanket warm,
"He wore my coat on Christmas morn;
"I," said the sheep with curly horn.
The stories of the talking animals of Bethlehem have inspired countless secular tales. English children's writer Beatrix Potter gave life to industrious mice and one notoriously cranky cat, Simpkin, in "The Tailor of Gloucester."
The tailor, who faces a deadline to make a beautiful cherry-colored waistcoat for the Gloucester mayor's Christmas Day wedding, is overcome by illness and given a Christmas Day gift by the mice. Even Simpkin, succumbing to the beauty and mystery of Christmas Eve night, has a change of heart.
In "Listen, Said the Donkey: Tales from the First Christmas" by children's author Jean Little, a donkey, a lamb and a camel, along with a Persian cat and a runaway dog, tell how they came to be in the stable during the birth of Jesus. As they bolster or contradict each other's version, they also undergo changes of heart.
"I," said the Dove, from the rafters high,
"I cooed Him to sleep that He should not cry;
"We cooed Him to sleep, my mate and I.
"I," said the Dove, from the rafters high.
Fisher says his animals "talk" to him each time he enters the barn at feeding time, in bleats, brays and neighs. Perhaps not in English, but then, he said he hasn't ventured out at midnight on Christmas Eve.
If he did, Fisher said, "I would understand them."
"Jesus, our brother, kind and good,
Was humbly born in a stable rude;
The friendly beasts around Him stood.
Jesus, our brother, kind and good."
