It’s been more than twenty years now, but it is one Christmas I will never forget.
We were in the midst of yet another busy Advent season at West Park Friends Church in Cleveland, Ohio, where I was serving as lead pastor. At the center of the festivities was a very special manger scene that had been made by a member of the church. It was a beautiful yet very fragile replica of the nativity, complete with meticulously hand-crafted shepherds, wise men, Mary, Joseph and, of course, baby Jesus.
One day as I was in the sanctuary preparing for an upcoming service, I happened to glance over at the manger scene. It was set up next to the altar, right where it belonged, but something just didn’t look right. Much to my surprise, I discovered that there was one very important piece of the nativity missing – baby Jesus!
I looked as hard as I could but there was no sign of baby Jesus anywhere. I asked Carol, who was serving as church secretary at the time, if she knew where baby Jesus went but she was equally perplexed. And suddenly a chill went up my spine as I was confronted with the ugly truth: somebody stole baby Jesus from the church manger scene. It was a full-blown, five-alarm Christmas scandal!
Just as I was about to hit the panic button, our then three year-old daughter, Hannah, walked into the room with a very sheepish look on her face, holding both hands behind her back. Her posture begged the question, so I took the bait: “I can’t find baby Jesus, Hannah. Do you know where he went?”
With an earnestness that only a three year-old could muster, Hannah looked up at me with her big, brown eyes and confessed, “I took baby Jesus, daddy. He looked cold. I love him, and I just wanted to hold him close to my heart. Can I keep baby Jesus, daddy?”
Looking back, this incident continues to remind me that Hannah grasped the real meaning of Christmas much better than the rest of us that day, including her dad. She knew that Jesus didn’t come to be put on display. He came to be held. God sent his Son to be embraced, not enshrined. Jesus is not a fragile god of porcelain, but a living, breathing God of flesh and blood. We want to keep Jesus at a safe distance in the manger, but he wants to be our most intimate friend, kept close in our hearts.
Through his incarnation, scandalous as it may seem, Jesus gives sinners permission to hug a holy God. Through his birth, life, death and resurrection, Jesus makes God readily accessible to three year-olds … and anyone else who is willing to receive him with the simple faith and wide-eyed wonder of a little child.
“He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” (John 1:11-12)
– David O. Williams, General Superintendent
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