Searching for Jesus

Like many families, we have a Little People nativity set. Each year after Christmas, I box it up and put it in the basement with the rest of our holiday decor, and each year, without fail, a piece or two get left behind. It wouldn't be so hard for me to take those left-behind pieces downstairs and put them away, but usually (because I am kind of lazy... shhh... our little secret), I end up putting them in the toy drawer with the rest of the Little People and reuniting them with the nativity the following Christmas. It has never been a problem for Mary, the donkey, or one of the wise men to vacation with Snow White and Sleeping Beauty for the summer. That is, until this year.

I have a confession: our Baby Jesus is missing.

I discovered his absence when I got the nativity out this year, and I was kind of surprised because, when Jesus goes missing from a nativity, you should notice, and it shouldn't take a year.

The nativity has now been "in play" for over a month, and Baby Jesus hasn't turned up. I've searched through the kids' toys several times to no avail. I've also gone through our Christmas boxes just in case he was misplaced when we cleaned up last year, but alas, there is no Baby Jesus.

I have to admit that I fear we might become a Christmas metaphor. We are the Family With No Jesus. I was surprised when the First presidency didn't talk about us in their Christmas devotional - I guess they hadn't yet received word of our ultimate failure.

I was thinking about it in church on Sunday - how we haven't found our Jesus. I looked around the congregation and thought, "Do any of them suspect that we've lost him? Can they see it in our countenances?"

Of course, I say these things in jest. The First Presidency and my Church congregation are not really going to shun us for losing our Baby Jesus. What matters most is that Christ is manifested within us - not whether we have a plastic figurine of Him in our Christmas decor (though you have to admit, our nativity is lacking a key element).

As I've been searching for a plastic figurine of Jesus, I've thought about how many other ways I can "find" Him.

I find Him in kindness - the kindness of others and the kindness I, myself, can provide.

I find Him in love - the unconditional type of love which is amplified by forgiveness.

I find Him in music - in hymns of praise and rejoicing, and in many other musics that reflect the nurturing and sharing of God-given talents.

I find Him in nature - in the very places that He created; in the beauty and majesty that testify of a maker and of a much greater plan.

I find Him in family - in the ways we serve and care for one another.

So many of my surroundings testify of Christ that it is never hard to truly find Him when I am searching for Him.

 

As for our Little People figurine, it will turn up. I don't know where or when, but he is somewhere, and we will be reunited and have a complete nativity again some day.