We thought about bypassing Christmas this year. We had been sick with a stubborn respiratory infection for weeks. Isolated in our house, we had to cancel all of our scheduled festivities. At our home, there were no signs of Christmas. No tree, no elves, no Santas… and most of all, no baby Jesus.
He was missing. Yes missing. After all of the antibiotics and steroids, when we finally started to feel better, we tore through the house in a cleaning frenzy. Then came the decorations ending with the manger scene. But, my heart dropped when the baby was nowhere to be found.
I looked for him among the elves, the carollers, the gnomes, the angels, the Santas, and the ornaments. The shepherds were busy with their flocks and the wise men had their hands full of gifts. Technically, they hadn’t even arrived yet. Mary and Joseph stared at the empty manger until I put in a placeholder, a shell from Florida shaped like a small body. A creative, albeit, very different representation. It will do, I told myself, but I missed that tiny baby in the manger. I wasn’t able to find a suitable baby on Amazon or Etsy, even when I checked the shop where I purchased our original set. It appeared they didn’t make the set anymore.
So, I wrote the artist, telling her what had happened. “Do you still make the figurines that belong in the set? Our baby Jesus has come up missing.”
Her reply was unexpected, bringing tears to my eyes. “Merry CHRISTmas! I’m so sorry your baby Jesus has gone missing!! I am happy to send you a replacement no charge, because you can’t buy Jesus .”
