So after four weeks of Advent, we have finally come to Christmas Day, and with that the Nativity Scene makes its appearance.
It is a tender scene, with Mary and Joseph and the Baby Jesus. And of course, those animals. Yes, those animals, the cow and the donkey, and with the sheep coming in later with the shepherds.
But why the animals? Well, the Baby Jesus was placed in a manger, which is the feeding-trough for animals like the cattle and donkeys.
Have we ever wondered what the animals at the Nativity Scene would have thought about the Baby Jesus?
Now, for those of us who have cat as a pet at home, if we were to bring in another cat, even if it is of the opposite sex, you can be sure that there will be a cat-fight.
But if we were to bring in a kitten, or maybe even a puppy, then the resident cat will somehow take on a “baby-sitting” role and take care of that helpless little thing.
Yes, it is interesting that even animals somehow have a tender and soft-spot for anything small and helpless.
Animals like cattle, especially the bull, can be temperamental, and donkeys can be stubborn. But they could have sensed the new-born Child in the manger, and with that, they could have also sensed that it was their Creator.
But a new-born, despite its helplessness and fragility, somehow awakens in us our tenderness and soft-spots.
And that’s the powerful mystery of Christmas, the mystery of the Incarnation, the Word-made-flesh, the God-became-man, in the form of a helpless delicate baby.
And this helpless and delicate Baby, the new-born Saviour, will awaken the tenderness and the softness that is within us, because He came to bring peace to all men.
The animals that the Nativity Scene are also symbols of what the Saviour came for.
The cow, or actually the bull, is the symbol of sacrifice. The bull is the prime animal for sacrifice. The meaning here is that Jesus came to sacrifice Himself to save us.
The donkey is a beast of burden. The meaning here is that Jesus came to bear the burden of our faults and infirmities and to heal us.
So together with Mary and Joseph, the animals at the Nativity Scene express the whole meaning of Christmas and who Jesus is and what He came to do for us.
There is always something that we can learn from the animals, be it the cow, or the bull, or the donkey, or even cats and dogs.
Animals can be tender and they too have soft-spots. They can bear burdens and make the sacrifice.
We too can do all that. We who are created in the image of our Saviour can certainly do all that we must do all that.
When we bear the burdens of others with tenderness and compassion, and make that sacrifice with love, then there will be peace on earth.