The Manger And The Eatings

The Manger And The Eatings

(Published previously) 
 

All the animals were fed up with the cold weather. The sheep bleathed about the harshness of the unsheltered life on the fields. That is they only mentioned it to each other as they knew only too well that some of the other animals loved to visualize their loneliness and lack of protection in the cold nights when the lazy shepherds and their over worked dogs stayed at home or simply allowed themselves to sleep instead of watching out for dangers to those who are eaten by meat eaters and whom they were to protect. 
"Hehehe," the owls laughed, sitting on branches above their heads and almost invisible in the shadows of the trees, "does that go for your lambs as well? All unprotected?" 
The sheep heaved some deep sighs and the sound of this outburst went like a wave, rippling the air, all the way to the mice. They too knew the owls, but also the wolves, the snakes, the cats and the more or less wild dogs, all of them enemies to unprotected creatures like themselves, the sheep and a lot of other animals who weren’t carnivores. 

”Eaters," the little mouse, Eva, said, in a voice full of bitterness, "oh, how I hate them!"
All the others non-carnivores nodded and sighed like a chorus in a Greek tragedy. Their nods were seen by the little birds who also were born as preys to bigger birds, cats, dogs, wolves or snakes. 

"Yes, I wish everyone just ate insects like we do," Sophie the bird said. ”It would be so much more pleasant to everyone."
"Except to the insects," a small, but very angry voice chirped from somewhere in the foliage of the big treet hat gave all of them some shelter. "We don't appreciate your taste in food."
"Ahhh," another voice said, "and we - being leaves - don't like to be eaten by YOU!"
All the animals, all those who eat plants, were startled by this unusual admonishment. After several minutes in shocked silence Eva the mouse regained her voice: "What, can you talk??!!"
"Of course I - and all of us - can talk and we can feel. We only keep quiet not to make you notice us."
"Just like we do," the insect said, "not that it helps us very much, but what else can we do?"
"Nothing," another voice in the foliage said, "I for one am a leaf and I can't leave my tree, but still I don't appreciate being munched by some dumb insect, a cow, a horse or whatever."
"Well-well-well," she insect said, not liking to be called dumb, "what else can we do, some are eaters and some are eaten, that’s the law of nature ...."
"True," the owl said, "nature itself made those rules and that's how it shall always be."
Once again there was a shocked silence for several minutes. Then another voice was heard and all of them recognized it at once: It was King, the favorite dog of the lazy shepherd, and they shuddered at the thought of him being this close without their noticing him coming.
"All of us eat," he said, "the humans also kill some of us, but without eating them …."
"Who is being killed without being eaten?" the owl shouted in disgust at the very thought.
"You know that very well so don't pretend you don't," King said. "Your own grandmother was killed, stuffed and exhibited, but she wasn't eaten. To me that makes it obvious that it's the killing, not the eating, that's the problem. Anyway, at one point all of us die …."
"Yes, even YOU!" Eva the mouse yelled, full of malicious glee.
"I know," King said in a subdued voice, "and I've not come to terms with it yet, but what can we do? Nothing! We are born and we die, that's all there is."
A melancholy silence fell upon all of them. Some of them sighed in sadness at the thought of the perils of life and it all ending up in this sad dying no matter what they did to protect themselves. 
"We know, I think," Sophie the bird said. "Alive in the morning and dead in the evening. Meaningless and sad ...."
"Yes, it could be called sad, but meaningless it's not," a new voice said from somewhere in the darkness. 
The animals and the foliage, all of them, watched in silent amazement as the natural darkness of the night was turned into a shining light, even more shining than in the daytime. From out of this amazing light the voice said: "I'm a messenger and I’ve come to tell you of the birth of a Saviour - everybody’s Saviour, mine too ...."
"Someone to stop all the eatings?" a leaf said. 
This question seemed to amuse the messenger and when answering there was a movement in the air like of large wings flapping to ripples of laughter. "No, but to make you see that it's meaningful both to live and to die, no matter how. He - this Saviour is a he - has just been born and you are invited to see him as he is lying in a humble manger. Not all the world, not everybody are invited, but you who are assembled here are to be his guests."
Suddenly the light turned into a human figure in a long, shining robe and with large wings set high. Everything about this figure was light and everything shone in beauty. The sight of all this light overwhelmed all of them so much that they didn't think twice, but simply set off to the birth place of the newborn Saviour which turned out to be a stable which the sheep and some of the mice knew. 

The miraculous splendour of the light emanating from the messenger seemed to turn enemies into friends so that King walked side by side with the mice, carrying several very young owls on his back.
When they arrived at the stable and found that their presumed Saviour indeed was a newborn baby they weren't even disappointed because he too emanated the extraorinary light they had seen in the messenger. 

"So it's not the eating and killing that's the problem?" Eva the mouse whispered to Sophie the bird when they had been standing by the manger with the baby for a while. 
"There are no problems anymore," Sophie said, "it's all about living, for a short or a long time, and then maybe to meet this babe somewhere else which I don't quite know where is. Never mind, a castle or a stable will do just fine, I suppose."
"Hmmm," Eva said, not quite convinced, that it didn't matter whether one was eaten or not. Also she didn't like the look of the eyes of the snake who started to watch her with a hungry look so she sneaked out into the night. Close by the stable she met a dark figure, most likely a human, but something told her that this one was very special indeed.
"Well," the dark one said, "is he such a beautiful baby as they say?"
"Yes, I suppose so," Eva said, not feeling quite safe with this person. "He is a lovely child and everyone obviously loves him."
"Damn!" the man said. "Well, not that it will help him much ...."
"What do you mean?"
"Oh, he will die too."
"Eaten?!!!! That sweet baby?!!!!"
"No-no-no, not eaten, only dead like everybody else. He will even see to it himself to saaaave all of you small-brainers ...."
Eva was very surprised at this prediction and simply decided to ignore it. She bid the man farewell and he was too distracted by the thought of the child to say or do anything except waving a limp hand at her and then start walking in the opposite direction. However, when he did she noticed that he had a misshapen foot and that he was limping. To her the foot looked like at hoof, but she shrugged it off. 

However, she was too preoccupied with all the strange events of this evening to notice the owl who also was on her way home. Before she even knew what was happening she was grabbed, lifted up into the air, torn apart and then eaten. Somehow she didn't care and what's more, soon after having been eaten this experience proved to be a fitting ending to this special day and to her life.

 

CopyRights©Else Cederborg