Where’s Jesus?

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The faith group that I worship with, we don’t have a physical church. I need to make sure this is known right off the bat. 

In past years, we have done a Christmas tree contest. An independent judge picks which tree they like the best. This year, we’ve mixed it up. It’s like a treasure hunt. Each individual can post up to 3 pictures of a nativity from the community you live in. One can be your own. And if more than one member lives in the same community, you can’t duplicate your entry. 

When this was written, it was early in the month of December. The 10th to be exact. 

December 7th, which was a Saturday, we drove from the town I live in to a town approximately 2 hours away. 30 minutes of this drive was interstate travel. So no one expects to see a nativity on the side of I75. However, once we left the hum of 75 behind, we started looking for nativities. In this almost 2 hour drive, we counted 3. Yes, you read that right, 3. 

We passed some opulent church buildings. Some simple. Some in between. 

Where’s Jesus?

The comment was made, “it still early”. This statement is true. It is still early in the month of December. People start decorating for Halloween in September. Myself included some years.

I have 2 nativities in my house. One is a Christmas tree ornament and one is under my tree. But if a random person drove past my house, there is nothing that says, ‘there lives a Christian’.  Just a house. If these buildings of worship didn’t have steeples on them, the random passerby wouldn’t know these were supposed to be houses of worship. Just buildings. Is this how churches really want to be seen? Just another building?

Again I ask, where is Jesus?

I attended a church once that skimmed over the birth of Jesus. It wasn’t a big deal. This branch was more focused on the resurrection. The resurrection of Christ is the bedrock of our faith. But I ask again, as I have asked in the past, if Christ had never been born, how could he die to be resurrected? The birth of our Lord and Savior is mighty important, in my honest opinion. How can we brush over that?

This treasure hunt to find a nativity has turned into a scavenger hunt. Where are they? The church directly behind my house has one. But it is in the pastors yard. The pastors yard, that is behind the church. Standing on my carport, I can only see the outline of their nativity. Which tells me that it is for the benefit of the congregation only. 

Only being able to see the outline of the nativity; is this the direction we (as a society) are heading? We can only see the outline of Jesus? A hint? A blur? A dimming light of life?  We can ring a bell so that an angel get’s its wings. We can believe in fairies to bring them back to life. Are we willing to bring Jesus back to life? Am I going to get some clap back over this, an angry retort? “Jesus isn’t dead or dieing!” Then where is he?

On the drive back, we drove a different way home and found 2 more. For a total of 5. 

Where’s Jesus? Are we ashamed of him? Are we too tired to fool with him? Are we too stressed or too busy to worry about a stupid nativity. No one looks at them anyway. It’s a waste of energy and (if you choose to put a spot light on it) a waste of electricity? Or we’ll hide Jesus in the back for only those with a special privilege to view. Hide Jesus under a bushel? Oh no! We’ll hide him in the back yard!

Out of the nativities that we saw; 1 was a business, 1 was a private residence and 1 was a city. 

Is having a nativity an important part of worship? Is it just a symbol and I’m not reading the room correctly? Has this lack of respect always been present but I (for one) didn’t see it until I started looking for it? 

Whether it’s a private question or a public question; where’s Jesus?

In later posts, I will share the 3 nativities I chose.

Published by Chico’s Mom

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18 thoughts on “Where’s Jesus?”

      2. I like Halloween and decorate for it too. I guess being a Christian, living in a Christian community, I was expecting more. We have a church here that in years past has done an elaborate live nativity. But rumblings in the community is that they aren’t going to do it this year, they can’t get enough volunteers.

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  3. Christmas is my favorite time of year, always has been. My birthday is in December and the snow starts flying, which means its snowboarding season. Still, I feel like the idea of Christmas has changed a lot since my youthful understanding of it. The commercialism is the main thing; the retail end of it. It’s become about money, which was never the point. This year at work they tore all the Christmas decorations down a day after they put them up (someone probably complained about them.) We have entered a world where there are so many different people with so many ideas that the fundamental ideas; grace, charity, love, have become something to complain about. How many times have you heard people say “I’m so tired of Christmas music!” I know you’re talking about nativity scenes, which is nothing I’ve ever done, but I’m thinking about the whole idea of Christmas and what it means to people.

    I’ve noticed an interesting thing this year. I’ve heard multiple coworkers actually say they miss the Christmas music we’re not playing, that they have to make their own playlists and listen to them in private. I’ve been doing that for years. I think what it is, is there’s a hunger to understand, to feel what Christmas is really all about. We desire the feelings that Christmas gives us, the connection to Our Lord and our humanity. We just have trouble knowing how to get there. There’s so much hate and greed and violence everywhere we look. And it’s all of our faults.

    I’m in Nashville right now. We’re at Vanderbilt University Hospital with my mother in law and we need some love. Right now we’re thinking a lot about spirituality and what happens after this corporal life ends. I’ll keep my eyes out for nativity scenes. I think there are probably a lot here. I feel like there are a lot of truly wonderful people in the world who’ve just been worn out by what we’ve turned Christmas into. It doesn’t mean they don’t care or don’t think about it. We’ve just all become really confused about what’s important, and we forget to celebrate it in the course of trying to survive the rat race that is life. But we’re trying to get there. We’re trying so hard.

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    1. Love this. 💕 Thank you. 🙏🏻’s for your family. Safe travels and healing for your mother-n-law.

      I hold hearty agree with you. We have so many things pulling at us that it’s hard to know which way to turn.

      And yes, we did this. It’s so very difficult to have a conversation about religion, spirituality, and worship without offending someone. We can’t just talk, share ideas, let along love.

      The rat race. Deep sigh, yeah.

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    1. My thought’s (an I’m no theologian), we read in the Bible where Jesus said “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” appears in both the Bible’s Matthew 22:21 and Mark 12:17. And when Jesus flipped the table in the temple, Matthew 21:12-13. My thoughts are Jesus would have found a way to use these as teaching moments. Black Friday and Cyber Monday, be like Zacchaeus and if you find you’ve cheated someone make it right. As (maybe) an example.

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