Jesus and the Cats

Cody and I are grateful to our human companion for setting up a more historically-accurate Nativity scene in our house this Christmas. Oxen, sheep and goats? Oh please! Oxen were huge! They weighed 1,500 to 2,000 pounds and were not exactly the “indoor” animals! They were the work animals and held in outdoor pens and pastures. Sheep and goats were invented by God to be waterproof and so they were also typically kept outside. So what was likely to have been there when Jesus was born? Small donkeys were transportation and it would be convenient to keep those in a stable if there was room enough. Perhaps a milking cow for the convenience of not chasing it around a field just to get a drink of the white stuff. The Bible doesn’t tell us what animals were there and in fact doesn’t even say that Jesus was born in a stable but we assume so because Luke 2:7 tells us that after His birth, Mary laid Him in a “manger” which is a feed trough for animals. 

..the most likely animals in the stable, 

during the birth of Jesus Christ, 

would be cats!

Our human writes: “based on archeological evidence, we know that the Egyptians tamed cats approximately 4,000 years before the birth of Christ. The Middle Eastern wild cats expanded into the agricultural communities along the Mediterranean in the Old Testament days. A recent study suggested, “that grain stockpiles associated with these early farming communities attracted rodents, which in turn drew wild cats.” After seeing the benefit of having cats around, the humans began to tame the feral cats. During the New Testament days, cats were domesticated and common in the cities, farmlands and in the villages all along the Mediterranean, and anyplace where there is hay and animal feed, there are rodents and therefore the most likely animals in the stable, during the birth of Jesus Christ, would be cats!”

Jesus and His disciples had covered a good amount of ground that day on their way to Capernaum. Tired and hungry, they were now resting at a home in a small village and waiting as the farmer’s wife and the other women were preparing a meal. As Jesus sat by Himself in the shade of the garden’s Sycamore tree and thanked God for the day, a tabby cat jumped up on His lap. After gently padding the coarse texture of Jesus’ cloak, the cat lay down and curled up on His lap. As Jesus began to stroke her soft fur, the cat stretched out both front paws and began to purr. This is a fictitious story of course but is it possible? A cat? With Jesus? The Son of God? Maybe so. We cats were there and in homes long before Jesus was born!

Submitted by Sean McDougal