Devotion 17 CHRISTMAS EMERGENCY – CHURCH LOSES JESUS

My wife and I were visiting a church we both love this Christmas season. The church we were married in these many years ago. It’s a beautiful older church with lots of wood, stained glass windows, pipe organ, and many great traditions. Like many churches in small towns across America this one seems to have passed it’s “glory days” as the town has declined in population but the church still ministers to a small but devoted flock.

Well, as the service began and the Pastor started with the current announcements one of the members of the congregation stood up and said, “Does anyone know where Jesus is? We can’t find Him and we need Him”. After a moment of silence an elderly member said that she had seen Him downstairs in the back when they were cleaning out. Another member said they had just looked there and didn’t see Jesus anywhere downstairs. Another member said that they had looked all over the church but still couldn’t find Jesus. There was a slight wave of murmuring that swept across the congregation but no one seemed to know where He was. After a few moments the Pastor said that if anyone found Jesus to let the member who had first brought this up know as soon as possible and we moved on with the announcements and the rest of the service.

As you can imagine I was a bit disturbed. We were still talking about it a lunch and one of the church leaders said he wished he had stayed behind to look because he was sure he had seen Jesus at the church not long ago and couldn’t imagine where He had gone. I thought about volunteering to go back and help look but we needed to be on the road to go home so I didn’t think I had time to help look for Jesus – it was their problem anyway.

Happily, Jesus was found later that day –just where they had left Him last year – on the bottom shelf in the back in the craft room.

I mentioned this church has many traditions. One of the most beloved is a live nativity scene they put on each Christmas for the community with volunteers from the church playing each part with the exception of baby Jesus in the manger and it was starting that evening and it was really, really important to find Jesus so the production could begin on schedule.

Anyway, the entire episode got me thinking about not only how easy it is to lose Jesus but about how we often put Him on a self in the back until the last minute when we really need Him – and thankfully, that He’s always there –right where we left Him – whenever we need Him.

Merry Christmas.
Luke 2: 1-20

Long time coming.

OK, just so it's been over a year since I posted is no reason to think I had gone away forever. For the record I've been busy working on an MA in Biblical Ministries and have just now completed it. So, maybe a little time will open up for a few more postings here and apparently just in time because I recently visited a church that had lost Jesus. I'll be back with more comment about that soon.