Lost and Found

“Pray we find Jesus,” my sister texted to me and our aunt. Her grandchildren had been playing with their child Nativity set and had lost Jesus. Becky and her grands combed through everything as they looked under cushions, furniture, pillows, and in drawers in hopes of discovering the misplaced Baby Jesus. I did what a sister should do, I prayed that they would find the missing one.

A while later, my sister texted, “We found Him!” I am not sure in what obscure place he was in, but their seeking revealed the One who is the center of the Nativity—Immanuel.

My sister’s messages made me consider the essence of Christmas. What is the Nativity without Jesus? Without his presence, the holiday season is busy, fleeting, festive—but hollow.

At Christmastime we ponder that Immanuel, or God with us, is the one who clothed himself in flesh and came to earth because we were lost. The Nativity is the reality of God seeking what was lost—our relationship with him. In this season, we remember Jesus came to reconcile us to the Loving Father.

In Luke 15, Jesus taught parables about a lost coin, a lost sheep, and a lost son. In each of these, God was the seeker. In Luke 19:10 he declared, “For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.”

We are the ones who have lost our way. Jeremiah 29:13-14 promises: “If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. I will be found by you,” says the LORD.” I reflect upon my sister and her grands diligently seeking the Christmas Child, only to discover him. I smile thinking of the Almighty God finding that lost Jesus for the Nativity set. Likewise, the missing Jesus waits to be found by us. The truth of the baby in the manger is that Jesus came to this earth because we need to find him.