hat do you think this is?
Some cruel joke, where the Baby in the Manger is replaced by some nasty ol' dog?
Well, that may have been done at times, but this is not a cruel joke, it's a great Christmas story.
Two thousand years ago or so, when dogs were despised by everyone but shepherds and children, the Devil knew that something was going to happen soon to cause him a great amount of trouble. He suspected that it might happen in Bethlehem, the City of David, where the prophecies pointed to the coming of the Messiah. So he made sure that every inn in town was full, or at least not available to outsiders. He noted that one too-friendly innkeeper was willing to share his stable when his inn was full, so the Devil took action.
He took his worst diseases and spread them around the feedtrough in the stable:
Meanwhile, a little old
dog that lived on the edge of town
was looking for a place to stay. She wormed her way into the
stable to have her pups. She climbed up into the feedtrough and had three pups.
Thus the three diseases that the Devil had placed in the Manger were not caught by Jesus
when he was born in the same Manger a little later on.
The remaining pup grew up to be a typical,
despised dog. He traveled as far as the place people call Nazareth, and in his
old age befriended the boy Jesus.
Dogs
were sent as companions and protectors of all mankind.
One of them was at Calvary.
He marked the Cross.
He followed the followers of Jesus,
who gradually learned to accept dogs as friends and helpers.
Today their descendants are found wherever Christians live.