“What are you doing?” My friend was poking around in the house plant by the front door. Her visitor was admittedly curious about the intense scrutiny being paid the plant and the dirt surrounding it.
“I am looking for Baby Jesus,” was my friend’s straight-faced answer. Now, Baby Moses in the bulrushes, yes—but Baby Jesus in the potted plant? Remembering the look on her visitor’s face, my friend laughed as she related the story. Discovering an empty manger in the family’s Nativity set, she inquired as to who had last seen the baby and where. The clues had led her to her present location and activity. In a home with small children, looking for Baby Jesus can be a regular event during the holidays.
Another friend said that she often finds the baby Jesus, in a pocket of her young daughter’s jeans and dresses, having been taken shopping, to restaurants, and, appropriately, to church. He once was found in the mashed potatoes, but I think that it was not a common occurrence.
Our own manger scene, now thirty-one years old, has its own stories to tell. Every Christmas I set it up on the coffee table in the living room, low enough to entice small children to peek inside. However, it is also low enough to be a play area and so it was for many years. In fact, among those gathered at the manger in past years, have been Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, and R2-D2, of Star Wars fame, The Fonz, and Ronald Macdonald play figures, a small replica of Garfield, the cartoon cat, and a motley assortment of small stuffed animals. Needless to say, most of the straw has worn off the floor of the manger, but Mary and Joseph still look pretty good as they admire Baby Jesus in the crib. I’m not sure when the donkey and the cow disappeared, but three tired looking kings, and a shepherd with three sheep faithfully took their places again this year, the reverence on their faces still intact.
With our boys grown, Trouble, our cat is now the biggest threat to serenity at the stable. With her active curiosity and her propensity to hunt out new toys, she spends a lot of time with her head inside the manger. I guess that a cat in the stable is acceptable, regardless of her disproportionate size.
Anyway, this year, I decided that it was time to buy a new creche. It is elegant and complete, including two beautifully coifed angels— and it is very breakable. I set it up high in a safe place, where even short adults have to stand on their toes to see it. Actually, the only place I had to accommodate this lovely Nativity set is where my frog collection sets. Now, what do I do with my frogs? I suppose there may have been frogs in Bethlehem that first Holy Night. If there were, I am sure that the croaks and ribbits would have been welcomed, along with the lowing of the cattle, and the heavenly choir to welcome the tiny King. Maybe I’ll just leave them there. Besides, I am still uncomfortable with a manger scene that is not user friendly. The baby Jesus does not even come out of the crib. Somehow the frogs make me feel better.
My favorite Nativity set and the most precious of all, however, is the one that my son made when he was in the second grade. It is getting crumbly because it is made of homemade sculpting dough. All three kings are kneeling and have a tendency to topple over. I lean them against their shared camel, also kneeling, which happens to be proportionately the size of their dog. The kneeling Mary has to lean against Baby Jesus’s bed of hay, her hands clasped high in prayer, her face tipped heavenward. It is a labor of love, this sweet portrayal of the Nativity.
However, it is my son’s vision of the Holy Infant that still touches my heart after all these years, reminding me of why we celebrate this holiday season. The baby Jesus is, simply put, too big for the crib to hold Him. His eyes, two little balls of clay, appear to be bulging with joy. The tiny nose ball sits just above the large mouth hole, which is smiling deep and wide. Like a skydiver in free fall, his arms are flung wide open and his legs are spread-eagled. He appears to be leaping into the world with a joyful, “Here I am!”
With originality and integrity, my young son crafted with his clay and captured Christmas as only a child can. Here is a Christ Child who will definitely not stay in the manger.