While at a birthday party in the country, my youngest son and I found solace from an epic Nerf gun battle in the pen of two precious donkeys. We made fast friends. I never thought I would be the type to wax on and on about a donkey, but here I am, a donkey lover.

This precious mother daughter pair of donkeys stole our hearts. They were gentle and tender and strong. We spent entirely too long talking to them and petting them.

I mean, look at those eyes and ears and that nose. Don’t they just scream “I am your confidante and friend?”

Seriously though, spending a few hours with those precious beasts of burden made me think of Mary and her long journey on the back of a donkey to Bethlehem from Nazareth.

With so many hours on such a long journey, I image that they, too, made fast friends. I imagined her sharing her heavy load with the one whose load was her and the child swelling within her. I imagined her giggling to herself at sharing her fears and worries with a donkey, yet finding surprising solace in his silent companionship and his animal empathy with being a burden bearer.

Mary to the Donkey

You bear a heavy burden,
You poor and tired beast;
But I, too, hold a weight,
And of women I’m the least.

I fear we’ve much in common,
Far more than I care to admit. 
As your back bends under me,
So my soul bends to submit. 

Donkey, did you imagine this, 
When you were a little foal?
For I myself had other plans,
But our God is in control. 

This child I did not expect,
Born of miraculous seed,
He is now my load of love,
So for us both do plead. 

Please excuse my shaking
As you take me far from here,
I’ve never traveled before
And His birth is drawing near.

It’s not the labor I fear;
Women deliver every day.
It’s the task of raising Him
Whom wind and wave obey.

You must think me silly, 
Talking to you endlessly.
But God has chosen you,
To bear His son with me. 

He’ll give us all we need:
He who calls must qualify. 
We will leave our sighing,
We will sing His lullaby.

I am so thankful that the God who gives us burdens both empowers us to carry them and empathizes with us as the One who bore the burdens of the world.

I am also thankful for donkeys.