Searching For Jesus… Good morning readers on this Saturday. My musings are exactly what the title means. Why? Well, if you were shopping in this rather frenzy time called Christmas, you probably would not say to yourself, to others, or the shop owners, “Hello, I’m searching for Jesus. Can you help me find Him?” Now that would have folks wondering if you are a bit ‘off’! Yet, this time of the year is truly ALL ABOUT JESUS, but somehow it seems most folks think it is searching for a good deal for a present!

What kind of family tradition did you have growing up? No doubt, each of us have some memories from those days. For me, there’s two things that still touch my heart: 1) Putting up the Nativity out in our yard. My father built the manger and the ‘hut’ for Mary, Joseph, Jesus and yes, it was big enough to have animals! It was so beautiful and everyone would come by and stop and shout “Hey Roy, that is amazing!” Then the click of cameras would start, mind you this was in the later 1954 to the1960’s and those camera’s flash felt like fire in my eyes! 2) My favorite? I was dad’s apprentice! I would sneak out of bed and help him put all kinds of toys together. For me that WAS CHRISTMAS—more fun than looking for my own presents because I helped put them together! Until my dad passed, we would laugh at those times, they were pure joy. But the tag on this tradition was something I will never forget. As dad and I were trying to figure out how to put things together, he would stop, take a big gulp of his coffee and say, “these presents are for you all, but remember the real present is Jesus!” And I would say in my ‘military words’ “Yes sir!” (Dad was Army so you can understand!)

Right now as I am writing this devotion, Al and his brother Adrian are putting up the Nativity. It is so beautiful, not the blow-up stuff, but the love of a hand-made manger by Adrian, and beautiful Mary, Joseph, Jesus, cows, camels, lots of sheep, shepherds and wise men. When people come by our road they stop and to this day, they still take pictures! Some of the neighbors say “you can’t find a nativity anymore—just blow up ‘non-people’ and it kind of takes away what Christmas means.” I agree, we go around to look at the lights and rarely is there a Nativity, but there’s a lot of cartoons, snowmen, etc. I think we need to stop and remind ourselves what this time of the year really means!

A dear friend of mine who is also a chaplain and a pastor, says “The whole point of Christmas is Jesus but honestly, it seems we seldom find Him!” She’s right. And I think we need a lesson from the Wise Men! Remember those words from Matthew 1-2 [from The Passion Translation] 

“Jesus was born in Bethlehem near Jerusalem during the reign of King Herod. After Jesus’ birth a group of spiritual priests from the East came to Jerusalem and inquired of the people, “Where is the child who is born king of the Jewish people? We observed his star rising in the sky and we’ve come to bow before him in worship.”

I know we get inundated with trying to get our Christmas “just perfect” but in doing so, we rarely have Jesus in the center of it all! We scurry, get out of breath, and find our wallets are running low…and that is when we miss Jesus because we weren’t looking for him. Oh those presents, food, decorations, etc., stepped in first.

But here’s the real-deal: Jesus is ALWAYS HERE! However it takes, let’s search carefully for Him, open our eyes and see that He is in the middle of our hustle and bustle! When we find Jesus let’s rejoice! But please, let’s not keep His love for ourselves. Instead, may we lift our eyes off of ourselves and choose to share the love of Jesus with others so they know what Christmas is really about! AMEN.