Missing Jesus
by Robin Jones Gunn

When our kids were little, my mother-in-law gave us a nativity set she bought in Italy many years earlier. Mary and Joseph bent in adoration over the manger where the removable baby Jesus nested in the carved-out straw bed. The shepherds knelt. The wise men gazed down from their camels. All the hand-painted figurines focused on the Christ child.

I set up the nativity on the coffee table so it would be the central decoration for our Christmas, not realizing that the eye-level attraction invited little hands to engage with the cast. Within twenty minutes the wise man with the gold turban lost his head.

I moved the nativity set to the dining room table and gave the usual mom-speak. “Use your eyes, not your hands.” Then I went to find the Superglue.

I returned to find baby Jesus missing. “Where is he?”......

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