The Animals Speak

The Animals Speak

The full moon shone bright and clear, mining sparkling diamonds from newly fallen snow. It was a cold one and the valley had been bracing for subzero temperatures, that was expected to last through into the New Year of 1935.

Log cribs were stocked and animals safe inside barns with plenty of straw to bed down in.

A nine-year-old boy had been waiting for weeks for Christmas Eve. It was that year the Christmas song, “Santa Claus is coming to town” was released and every girl and boy listened carefully to hear it on the Philco.

However, this was not the focus of this young lad. His attention was on the midnight hour of December 24, 1934. His timing had to be perfect, or he would miss it.

At 11:45, his parents were sound asleep. Like the Clement poem, they had settled down for a long winter’s nap.

He quietly bundled up, lit the kerosene lantern and ventured out into the frigid Christmas Eve night trudging through the snow to the barn. He did not have a watch, for that was way too expensive to own. He had to time this, and he judged it would take him about 10 minutes to walk the distance to the barn and leave him five minutes to spare.

The moon was so bright, shining on pure white snow, he hardly needed his lantern. He waited at the door, breathless with anticipation, listening. Slowly and quietly, he entered and paused. The five cows were quiet, and a few sheep looked up to watch him.

He stood there listening, waiting for the minutes to go by. All remained quiet, other than the breathing of the animals.

He thought to himself, there must be more; would he hear a voice? After some time, dejected, he decided to go back to a warm bed and as he closed the door, he suddenly heard his name, “Donald”. What was that, was it in his mind? He opened the door again and peered inside, still only the soft breathing of the animals. Yet, as he trudged back, he said, it is true. I really heard my name. He looked up into the clear starlit night and voiced “thank you.”

This nine-year-old boy was my father and as he would tell me the story, I would ask, Dad, did you really hear your name? With a twinkle in his eye, he responded. Bruce, I sure did!

Dad had listened to his father, my grandfather who had come from Scotland as a young boy, talk about the European legend, that on Christmas Eve, animals are given the power of speech and rejoice at the birth of Jesus. They proclaim, The Child is come”.

My father was a storyteller, and I like to think, he passed that gift to me. He also believed in the tangible Presence of Jesus and how close he is to us. He knew death was our enemy, yet, when Mom passed away, eight years before he did, he would say to me, Bruce, she is just through that veil and more alive than you or I.

At this 2024 Christmas, almost ninety years after this story, are you needing encouragement to know that Jesus is here, and He knows exactly who you are and what you are facing?

There are two verses for you, that I would ask you to take into 2025. They have been immortalized just for you. One is recorded in 1 Samuel 1: 19.

“God began making the necessary arrangements in response to the prayers Hannah had prayed” MSG.

The other one is Proverbs 25:2 and I paraphrase.

“God delights in what He conceals from us”.

What are you asking God for?

What are you wondering about that you wonder; does He hear me?

Know that He is making the necessary arrangements with you intently on His mind.

I so need to grasp the reality of this, and I need to again be a small nine year old boy and with breathless wonder, trust God for the supernatural, even when I do not see Him at work.

At just the right moment. You could hear your name. It will be the quiet voice of the Holy Spirit, and you will know in greater understanding, just how thin that veil is between where you are and where Jesus is and those you love who have changed addresses a bit before us. It becomes a thin space, which I have written previously about.

Have a blessed Christmas and may all of us know the reality of the Christ child in our lives. That He is already making the necessary arrangements for the cries of our hearts.

~ Bruce