Today’s News…
~ A woman was arrested for biting her 71 year old husband’s tongue off as he went to give her a kiss. Authorities say the married couple was waiting on the porch singing Christmas carols when police arrived. He, with a lisp.
~ Consumer reports stated AT&T as the worst cell phone carrier of all providers. The best? U.S. Cellular.
~ A man had his Apple laptop computer stolen from his car and is offering an ounce of marijuana as the reward prize.
~ Baby Jesus turned up missing this morning.
I don’t know about the tongue story, AT&T, or the laptop theft story, but I do know that Baby Jesus turned up missing.
My granddaughter arrived this morning at the usual time. After breakfast, she headed to the living room and got out the Fisher Price Little People Nativity set. We’ve been talking about the nativity this week. In this particular nativity, there is baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph, the wise guys, the shepherds, an angel, a cow and lots of sheep. Oh, and there’s a dog. And, once in a while, there’s a pink van that is used for Mary and Joseph to get around in.
Yesterday Mary and Joseph went for a drive with Jesus in his car seat, buckled safely in the back of the van. However, today he was missing. He wasn’t old enough to be in the temple. We checked under the furniture they had driven by while out gallivanting around. He wasn’t there. Baby Jesus was nowhere to be found and after about thirty minutes, on and off, we became distracted and busy with other things.
It made me think how Jesus comes up missing in my life. Do I become frantic over making Him the center once again or do I get distracted and go on about my day, thinking He’ll turn up somewhere? Do I search diligently? He is never far, but it can seem or feel that way when we’ve pushed Him aside and allowed other people or other things become our distracted focus.
I finally got on my knees and did another sweep of looking under the furniture. After all, how can you have a nativity without the baby Jesus?
“Hey Boo,” I called, “I found him! I found baby Jesus!”
My little two-year old granddaughter came running with a smile plastered on her face.
“Baby Jesus!” she shouted and scooped him up and put him back in the van and off they went.
Oh, to be like a child. To run to the Father whether we get off course or we are filled with joy.
Have you hidden Jesus under ‘the couch’ in your life? Do you want that intimacy back that you once shared with Him – or perhaps never did?
Get on your knees and look under the couch. Is He under there with the dust bunnies or is He shining through your life for the rest of the world to see? You may be the only Jesus some will see this Christmas season. If you need to, dust yourself off and shine for Him so that others might find the real reason for the nativity. Don’t let the story of baby Jesus’ birth come up missing.
