When Becca was a young child of about three we had a nativity set on our table. She used to love playing with the figurines. One day I came home to find her distraught. “We can’t find Jesus” she exclaimed. I wasn’t sure, at first, what she meant. But then it was revealed that the Jesus figurine from the nativity set was MIA. I assured her we would find it after dinner. Inwardly, I was a little irritated because I had frequently asked her to leave the nativity set alone—to look but not touch. It had straw that was messy and I was afraid that one of the pieces would get broken or misplaced. After dinner we looked high and low for Jesus. Finally, in desperation, I had a revelation. I spotted her backpack on the chair. A young child’s backpack is her world. Everything they value and treasure can be found in their backpack. In this case, a Dora the Explorer backpack. I reached in the backpack and found Jesus. “See,” I told her “Jesus was in your backpack ready to go to preschool with you tomorrow.”
I’ve often reflected on the search for our MIA Jesus, and I now realize that he wasn’t “missing in action” at all. He was in the middle of the action. His place in Becca’s backpack was divinely appropriate. There, in the midst of all the symbols of my daughter’s interests and activities, was the Lord of life. And that reality extends beyond 5-year-old girls.
As we face a new year crammed with commitments, each of us can begin the year confident that Jesus is right there in the middle of it all. As much as it drives us crazy not to have the Jesus piece in its proper place in the nativity scene, he belongs in our minivans, briefcases, purses, gym bags, suitcases, and checkbooks. As one person has said “God’s uncontainable love for his creation spilled over into a manger, a carpenter’s shop, a fishing boat, a tax collector’s home, a Roman execution scene, a rich man’s grave, and an upper room. The good news of Christmas that catapults us towards Easter (and beyond) is that we are not alone. The one who made us has come to us and remains with us in all that we attempt and experience.”
John proclaims “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Wherever you are in this life—whether it’s a good place or a bad place—Jesus wants to dwell with you if you’ll let Him. Let’s make sure we invite and welcome the Lord into the, sometimes, messiness of our lives. It’s there that He really shines!
On coming to the house, they saw the child and his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. Matthew 2:11
Chris Higgins 