When I was about eight years old, our family acquired a large ceramic nativity set. It was natural and unfired, ready to customize. I remember sitting at the dining table with all the pieces laid out and one by one we painted them. Really, my dad did most of the painting, but he would give my siblings and I enough to do to make us feel like it was a collaboration. Being very artistic and detailed, my dad took great care in painting intricate details and even personality into the characters and animals. When the painting was done, the set was handed off to a lady who attended the church my dad pastored in Seguin, Texas, to be fired in the kiln. When the firing process was complete, the pieces were then wiped with stain to antique them. A few pieces even received additional detail like jewels on a wise man and wire shepherd staffs. The finished product can be seen in the photo. Now the set is forty-five years old. The cow is missing an ear. One angel lost her wings. Over all, though, the set has survived quite well and is a beloved heirloom in our family. Many memories flood our minds at a mere glance.
Recently my wife and I were Christmas shopping in a nearby city and we took opportunity to visit an antique shop. We like treasure hunting in these glorified junk stores. I rounded a corner and lit up at the site of a nativity set from the same cast of the one our family has set out year after year. It wasn’t painted the same, not really painted at all. The pieces were simply varnished. Still, it was the same molded figures which I was excited to see it and immediately thought about making the purchase. Then I noticed a fatal flaw. The set was missing a few pieces including angels, a third camel, a couple of shepherds and baby Jesus in the manger. What! Missing Jesus? The central figure of any nativity scene was absent from the collection. I asked the curator if she knew where Jesus was. She replied it was gone and added that many times baby Jesus is missing from nativity sets because the are small and get lost, or a child misplaces it or some other mishap. I commented, “A nativity set isn’t worth anything without the central figure of Jesus in the manger.”
How poignantly this message spoke to my heart. Families fill the holiday season with cheer and goodwill. Gifts are exchanged. Donations are made to charities. Yet one thing is missing. They are missing Jesus. The central figure of the holiday. The reason Christ-mas exists at all. There may be a Mary and a Joseph, a couple of shepherds, wise men and camels, but no Jesus. Like the incomplete nativity set at the antique store, these families try to build value into a season without the only one who gives it value.
Expanding beyond the holiday season, are we missing Jesus in our daily lives? I don’t mean religion, or church going, or doing good deeds. A friend and I were recently discussing Matthew 7:21-23.
21 “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. 22 On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ 23 But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’ (NLT)
Jesus is leveling a warning to those who are religious, who thought they had their ticket punched to heaven because of their acts of religion. They were ultimately rejected because they had no relationship with Jesus. Jesus was missing from their nativity scene. They had Mary and Joseph. Shepherds, wise men, camels and sheep were accounted for. Went to church once a week … check, gave to the salvation army … check, said a prayer over meals … check. Ultimately they were more obsessed with looking like a nativity scene than they were with keeping Jesus in their lives.
This holiday season, this next year, examine your life scene. Is the savior of the world residing front and center? Are the other figures busying your life surrounding and bowing to one who will bring value to your life, to your family, your world? The older I get, the more I realize my need for Jesus. More than anything I want to hear Christ say one day, “Well done my good and faithful servant.” I will not hear those words if, while here on earth, I am missing Jesus.
