Do you see this picture of baby Jesus? How He's reaching out to you, wanting to be put in the creche where He belongs? Yeah, it grabbed my heart strings too. There's an injustice that is taking place each Christmas season in my home and I will not stand for it any longer. I am choosing to stand up, revolt and to take matters into my own hand! What am I talking about? Let me explain.
When you are young and you meet the love of your life, there are many discussions the two of you have. You ask each other about your favorite colors, music, foods, movies and even what your blood types are, but there's one question that's never brought up--until it's too late. Yes, I'm talking about what you and your family's tradition is regarding the nativity scene underneath the Christmas tree. You see, if I had been dating a Jewish woman, I would know where she stood. I wouldn't have had to ask the question, but that's the insidiousness of this issue: You can't assume. You just can't assume that the woman of your dreams, who was raised as a devout Catholic, would have the same tradition as your family. I just thought that we would be on the same page. But I was wrong. So wrong.
In my family, we would decorate the house with Christmas lights and after we had put up the tree we would set up the manger. My brother and I would set up Mary, Joseph, the three wise men, the angel, a sheep (taken from an older and cheaper manger set), a cow and, most importantly, we would put the baby Jesus in the makeshift crib. Jesus would be there--where He belongs.
When my wife and I started living together, our first Christmas came to be and we set up our decorations, put the manger up and my wife took the baby Jesus and put him in a drawer to a cabinet in the living room. I was mortified. Shocked. Filled with horror. The Lord and Savior of all creation resting in a drawer during the holiest time of year? I casually asked what she was doing with the baby Jesus and she told me that in her family they didn't put out the baby Jesus until Christmas day as that's when He entered the world. There was a moment of intense emotion that welled up within me and I just didn't know what to say. I tried to explain that Jesus is around all year, that the manger is just a symbol of how God is present in the world and how there's beauty and goodness all throughout the world--all to no avail.
Nearly fifteen years have gone by and each year it's the same thing. Baby Jesus is stolen and hidden in the house. He's hidden somewhere really good but--I always find Him. I take Him out, put Him in the crib, smile and then put Him back where my wife has hidden Him. It's a new tradition that we've started in our household.
Love is a many splendid thing poets say. When you marry, when you give of your life to someone else and you take your traditions and meld them with hers something wonderful and magical happens. Maybe you cut carrots one way and she another. Or I like onions in my salad and she doesn't. Or I am a clean freak and she is clutterly-challenged. It doesn't matter what the differences are, as in the end, you come together as a family and create new traditions, find compromises and find new ways to celebrate the differences we live with. So if Christmas is about God entering the world and joy, love and light, then, in a small way, our cat and mouse game of finding/hiding the baby Jesus is our way of starting a new Christmas tradition. One that our kids find rather amusing. So during this Christmas season, enjoy your family, friends and the true meaning of Christmas: That baby Jesus doesn't need to be in the creche but in your heart.
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