Talking to the Animals on Christmas Eve 2023

I first posted this in 2009. It’s been a perennial favorite. Here it is again with some light edits.

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When you were young, did anyone ever tell you that animals speak at midnight on Christmas? I don’t remember who told me, but I do remember looking expectantly at the family Dachshund for several years. For the record he never said anything, at least not in a human language.

Like many legends, the origins of this one are hard to discover. But that does give us the space to speculate and theologize a bit.

There is a longing in children and in many adults to talk with animals. What else explains the Doctor Dolittle stories? What else explains the long one sided talks with a patient dog or cat. ( Or horse or hamster)

I wonder if that longing isn’t the remnants of a memory of the way things were supposed to be. Somehow, particularly as children, we know that our relationship with animals is not what it should be. A child should be able to put her hand near the asp¹. We should not flee from a bear or run from a lion². As children and adults we long for the harmony that we know is missing from the world.

The missing harmony begins to be set right at Christmas. Long before we have the theological language to describe it, we know that when Jesus is born God comes among us. When Jesus is born the healing of ourselves and of creation has begun. The Good News is here. At the birth of Jesus, heaven and earth are joined and rejoice. Angels and shepherds sing. And legend suggests that the animals joined in praise. The world set right for a moment.

The underlying belief of the legend is that the animals know God and are in relationship with God. Until we get talked out of it, many of us start with the very Biblical assumption that all of creation, everything and everyone, can praise God. Animals in their animal way praise God. On Christmas the animals might let us humans join with them.

I’m a grown person now, well past the age of childhood dreams. I have learned enough theology and lived long enough to believe that animals are indeed in relationship with God. Fish in fish ways. Birds in bird ways. Dachshunds in Dachshund ways. But yet, I catch myself each Christmas looking at my cats and hoping this is the Christmas they speak. That this is the Christmas we rejoice together. Hoping that this is the Christmas when all creation is at peace.   May it be so…

First published on this blog in 2009.

Merry Christmas!

1. Isaiah 11:8 ↩︎
2. Amos 5:19 ↩︎