Finding Jesus

Like many families, we have a Little People nativity set. Each year after Christmas, I box it up 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 out to the shed and put them away, but usually (because I am kind of lazy), I end up putting them in the toy bin 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, except...

The time we lost Baby Jesus. 

When I got out the Nativity, He wasn't there. I searched through the kids' toys and all our Christmas bins over and over, and I couldn't find Him.

I started to fear that we'd become a Christmas metaphor. We were 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.

When I attended church on those December Sundays - I would think about how we hadn't found our Jesus. I would look around the congregation and think, "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 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 was lacking a key element).

As I look back on the time I spent searching for a plastic figurine of Jesus, I reflect on 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, we found it the following summer under our computer armoire. It was there for over a year and a half.