Recently, I've been writing some bedtime stories. My main audience is Kira, one of my grandchildren. I'm using this one, however, in church this morning, for a kid's time. This morning is our annual "Getting Ready for Christmas" emphasis.
After some cookies and milk get the kids gathered round. Snuggle and enjoy.
(It's OK for grown-ups to enjoy the tale as well.)
A Lost Donkey Finds His Momma, And . . .
by, Howard Merrell
Dudley just couldn’t hee-haw any more. For a while he was glad that Daddy Donkey wasn’t there. Daddy Donkey always said, “If you want to amount to anything, like your Grandpa Darius Donkey you have to learn to “hee-haw” with royal authority. The lesser beasts should hear you at least a mile away.”
Dudley had practiced and practiced until his hee-haw shook the leaves on the bushes. Not as good as grandpa Darius--he could make the palm trees sway-- but not bad for a little donkey.
Earlier in the day when Dudley called out to Momma Donkey he was at his best.
Sheila Sheep looked at him and said “Baa.”
Cameron Camel slowly turned his head toward Dudley and slobbered in recognition.
Doreen Dove lighted on the bush next to him and said “Coo, coo.”
Howard Horse trotted by and whinnied in reply.
Even Baxter Buzzard swooped down to get a closer look.
But no matter which way Dudley turned his big floppy ears he couldn’t hear a Momma “hee-haw” reply. Momma Donkey didn’t answer.
It all started a few days earlier, a long way from here, up in Nazareth. Joseph, Momma, and Dudley’s kind owner came and put the halter and blanket on Momma and said something about a trip to Bethlehem. Dudley had never heard of Bethlehem so he figured it must be far. If Momma was going to Bethlehem, what would happen to him? Momma was telling Dudley to “Just be quiet. It will be all right.”
But before she finished Dudley let out the saddest most pitiable “Hee-haw,” you ever heard.
Joseph looked at the little donkey and rubbed him right at the base of his ears. Dudley loved that.
“Why little fellow, you act like you can understand what I say, but don’t worry.”
As Joseph spoke Dudley snuggled his head in the carpenter’s course woolen robe. Sometimes the little donkey would find an apple or some other treat, but not today.
“Don’t worry little fellow. You can tag along. I guess the Romans will count you, too, and probably charge me more taxes, but I won’t leave you here by yourself.”
With that, Dudley looked so relieved, that Joseph just stood there in amazement. “Sometimes I think that donkey understands every word I say,” Joseph spoke out loud, but to no one in particular.
Right then, Momma gave Dudley “the look.” You know, the look that means, “Don’t you dare” do whatever it is that you were thinking about doing right before she gave you the look. So Dudley just munched some hay, acting like he had no idea what Joseph said.
But he did.
Joseph gathered some hay and grain into a sack, and leading Momma out, said, “Come on Little Fellow.” Joseph didn’t know the little donkey was named Dudley. “You just follow behind your momma.”
And Dudley did just that.
Where is this Bethlehem place, where they were going?
Why were they going there?
When would they come back?
Dudley was full of questions, but he knew they would have to wait. Right now he just watched. Joseph very carefully and tenderly help his wife, Mary, onto Momma’s back. Dudley had heard, not only from Momma but from listening to the people talk, that Mary was going to have a baby very soon.
“I wonder why we’re going to this Bethlehem place, right now?” He wondered. But that was just one more question that had to wait.
Joseph, Mary, and Momma went right down the path that led to the Jordan River, far below in the East. Dudley went from one bush, to a butterfly, to an interesting looking rock, to a flower, to another bush, to an anthill. If he got too far from the path he would hear Momma call. Dudley was surprised that Mary and Joseph didn’t seem to hear when Momma would call his name, but Dudley could hear just fine, and when he did, he’d say, “Ok, Momma,” and bound back toward the little travelling group. Mary would smile a tired smile when she saw him, but she never seemed to hear.
“Hmmm?” thought Dudley, “another question.”
That night, Joseph found a place for his little family to spend the night. Dudley listened to Mary and Joseph talk and knew they weren’t in Bethlehem, yet. They still had several days of walking.
After some hay and a nice roll in the dust, Momma was ready for sleep, but Dudley had so many questions.
“Just one, Dudley.”
“Aw, Momma, two?”
“No, I’m tired, and we both need to sleep. We have another long trip tomorrow. Just one.”
“OK. Momma. Why do the people always act surprised when we act like we understand them?”
“Oh, I’ve been wondering when you would ask about that. Do you see these big ears that Lord God gave us?”
Dudley nodded.
“Well these ears let us hear so much more than the people hear that when we talk we talk so quietly that they can’t hear us.” So they don’t know we can talk, and I guess they just assume that we don’t understand either.”
“But Momma, why do you and Daddy Donkey, and Grandpa Darius always act like you don’t understand anyhow?”
“Well, young donkey, that is another question, but I’ll answer it anyhow. We do that because it is easier. We really know what they are saying, but we act like we don’t.”
“Is that why you gave me the look, when we were back at Joseph’s house?”
“Now that’s three! But, yes, that’s why I let you know you should play dumb. The look! Indeed! You must have been talking to your Daddy again. Now, get to sleep.”
It was dark and Dudley couldn’t see, but he knew Momma was giving him the look. Soon he was fast asleep.
It was late in the evening when Joseph and his family arrived in Bethlehem. The trail was full. There were people, and horses, and camels, and more people, and Dudley knew Joseph was in a hurry. Momma tried to hurry without jostling Mary, but even Dudley knew the time for her baby to be born must be soon. As they were hurrying along, a big group of Roman soldiers came by. The flags floating in the breeze, the big fierce-looking horses and the shiny brass armor on the men dazzled Dudley. Dazzled him so much that he lost sight of Momma, and all the hoofbeats, and soldiers talking, and merchants yelling, and camels grunting, and strange donkeys hee-hawing was so loud that Dudley couldn’t hear Momma either, and now he was lost.
He went on in the way he thought they would have gone, but even when he did his best Grandpa Darius Hee-haw, he couldn’t hear any reply. Soon he got even loster and the sun was going down, and he got cold and loster. Now, he wouldn’t have cared if Daddy Donkey teased him about his pitiful little Hee-haw, he would have loved to see somebody he knew, but no one answered, and the darker it got, the loster Dudley got, and the colder, and the sadder, and the . . .
Until he couldn’t “Hee-haw” any more.
All that came out was, “sniff – snuff.”
Poor Dudley’s head was down between his legs and his ears were dragging the ground when he smelled something. Donkeys can smell almost as well as they can hear.
“Sniff, sniff, sniff,” went Dudley as he lifted his head into the breeze.
“I know that smell.”
“It’s fire.”
“People make fire to keep warm.” Just thinking the word made Dudley feel better.
Dudley started walking in the direction of the smell.
“Maybe, thought Dudley, “these are my people,” and if they are my people, Momma will be there!”
Dudley was trotting now. Soon he could see the glow of the fire behind some rocks. He was running now. He burst into the little group around the fire, but they weren’t his people and Momma wasn’t there.
Dudley’s head hung, and his ears drooped.
“Hey, little fellow.” Said one of the shepherds sitting around the fire.
“How’d he know to call me that?” thought Dudley. “That’s what Joseph calls me.”
But the fire looked so warm--and could it be? Was that man holding out an apple?--that Dudley moved closer to the fire, and took the apple from a little shepherd’s hand.
That’s when it happened!
Suddenly the sky was as bright as noonday. All the shepherds fell on the ground like they were dead.
Dudley didn’t know what it was. It looked like a man, but it was like it was made out of fire, only much brighter than the fire around which the shepherds had been huddling.
“Do not be afraid;” the thing in the sky said, with a voice like a people voice, but as loud as Grandpa Darius’s hee-haw.
“ for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. “This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” (Luke 2:10–12, NASB95)
Then the sky was full of these creatures of light saying with a sound that Dudley thought would split the rocks, “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.” (Luke 2:14, NASB95)
Then they were gone. The shepherds just stared at the black sky, dotted with stars, wondering where these marvelous creatures had gone.
Then one of the shepherds, one with a big black beard like Joseph’s, said, “Let us go straight to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us.”
Dudley’s little donkey brain was all in a whirl. Didn’t those wonderful creatures in the sky say something about a baby? Could it be Mary’s baby? And it if it was Mary’s baby then Momma couldn’t be far off.
So when the shepherds picked up their staffs and tied their robes around their waists, Dudley followed right behind. They “came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby as He lay in the manger.”
Soon the shepherds left. They told everybody they saw about what they had seen. Dudley’s big floppy ears could hear them talking a long time after they left. In fact he could still faintly hear them when he drifted off to sleep snuggled close to Momma.
