"Christmas?" God said as he echoed the word the ferret had spoken to Him.
"Now, that's an interesting sounding word, one that I've never heard before.
What can it mean?"
 
Without speaking again, the ferret - his name was Jesse by the way - gave
God a wet-nosed kiss on the cheek, scampered down his Maker's long robes and
disappeared from sight as he war danced onto an adjoining cloud.
 
"Strange little creature," God mused as He watched the ferret bounce around
in it's unique way.  "I'll have to admit that he seems to be filled with fun
and a simple joy.  We could use a bit more of that around here.  Still, he
has me curious.  'Christmas' - that's a nice sounding word.  I wonder what
it means?"
 
A few days passed in that special part of heaven called the Rainbow Bridge.
A few thousand years passed on earth.  Men fought wars; nations rose and
nations died.  God did His best to ignore all the mess that was happening in
His creation.  He was tempted many times to send the earth spiralling into
the sun and to be done with all the nonsense that kept making Him sad and
making Him mad.  The only thing that stopped Him was the nagging thought
that He must understand what the ferret had meant when he whispered that
single word, "Christmas."
 
God was almost out of patience and curiousity when the ferret returned.  If
the truth were told, he had just reached into the deepest recesses of His
robe and had pulled out a Mighty handful of thunderbolts.  He was just about
to fling them when He spied countless ferrets romping toward His throne.
Well, the ferrets weren't romping exactly.  Each and everyone of them was
carrying something as best they could in their paws or in their mouths.
 
In spite of Himself, God instantly found a smile beginning to form on His
bearded lips.  As He watched, the ferrets gathered around Him and laid their
burdens at His feet.
 
God stared in awe as He realized that the ferrets were bringing Him their
most treasured possesions.  The contents of every hidey-hole in heaven and
on earth was being deposited at His feet.  The Mighty handful of
thunderbolts fell from God's hand, forgotten and unused.
 
"Why?" He sputtered. "Why are you doing this?"
 
The ferrets said nothing; simply deposited their gifts and bounded off,
dooking and singing in their own ferret way.
 
As the last of the treasure was deposited at His feet, God spied a familiar
friend.  It was Jesse.  The ferret was walking proudly, tail erect, toward
the throne of his Maker.  Beside him walked his only child - a kit whose
name was Jesse Junior.  Without a word, they both began to climb up God's
white robes.  Jesse Junior paused as he reached a fold in the robes,
exchanged a few snuzzles with his father, and climbed into the robes,
snuggling up next to God's heart.  Jesse Senior looked sad for the briefest
of moments, then continued his climb.
 
When he reached his Maker's left shoulder, he stood up on his hind paws and
reverently whispered into God's left ear.
 
"Christmas," he said again.
 
to be continued...
 
Joy to the World!
[Posted in FML issue 1758]