Finding Baby Jesus | A Special Guest

I have been invited by my daughter to be a guest blogger.  I was excited!  If any readers know me at all you will know that I like to write and I like to talk.  It didn't take long for me to come up with what I wanted to say.

As a pastor, I deliver a children's sermon every Sunday.   During Advent I was giving the little message to the children, telling them that I have managed through the years to accumulate several nativity sets.  In early December we decorated our home for Christmas, deciding rather than displaying the nativity sets as a collection in one place, to put at least one in every room.  I was saying to the children that we have some that are large sets, some unique ones, some from foreign countries including one from Bethlehem.  I began to unwrap all the figures of that particular set, one by one.  First, the shepherds, sheep, wisemen, donkey, cow, and camel -- leading up to the holy family....Mary, Joseph and.....wait, where was the baby Jesus?  Jesus was missing.  As the children sat with mouths open and inquisitive looks on their faces, I was quickly thinking how I could bring my botched message around to something meaningful.  I knew that the Roman Catholic Churches don't place the Christ Child in their outdoor nativities until Christmas Eve night, so I talked about that and how other denominations often have different traditions from what we do, but in the end, we all celebrate and worship Jesus Christ as our Savior.  We had the prayer and the children left no doubt aware that I goofed but I find children to be very forgiving.

I have contemplated on that message quite a bit since then -- about how baby Jesus is missing from our celebrations this time of year and yet His birth is the very thing we are celebrating -- remember the old cliché, "Jesus is the reason for the season."

I am just wondering how many of us are missing the Baby Jesus in our lives?

Now an update:  When I got home from church that day I found Baby Jesus on a kitchen shelf (pictured).  He was with a different Mary and Joseph from another nativity set but that's okay -- the important thing is that we found Him.  I hope you have too....Blessings for a wonderfully happy and healthy New Year!

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