Day 13 – Tuesday, Dec 19
(Luke 2:17 – “. . . they made known … the Christ “)
I don’t know how we started it—don’t recall my family ever doing it, and my wife says that her family didn’t do it. But for as many Christmas seasons my wife and I can recall, I would hide the Mary and Joseph, a donkey, and an angel figurine from our crèche each day of the weeks leading up to Christmas. Every day I would hide them closer and closer to the crèche, and every day our five children would begin the day with a diligent search until one of them declared, “I’ve found ‘em! I’ve found Mary & Joseph!” We all called the game “Hiding Baby Jesus” because that was Who was really getting closer and closer to being “born in “Bethlehem” (on Christmas Eve, when no one was looking, I would place all of the figures into the crèche with Baby Jesus in the manger of hay).
While we only did this family tradition with our children until they were through the grade school years, we continue the tradition now with our grandchildren when they visit during the Christmas season. What a delight it was with our children and now with our grandchildren to see them all engaged in the frantic search and then the glorious discover for “the Baby Jesus”!
Our world is in a frantic search for answers—some have even said recently “a savior”—to be discovered who could solve all the world’s ills. If only they will find Him!
After the shepherds had found and seen the real baby Jesus in the real manger—having been sent by the angels on a search for “a Savior who is Christ the Lord”—they left and “made known the statement which had been told them about this Child”.
We who have “found” the “Savior” must not keep Him hidden nor keep “hiding” Him. We must eager declare to the whole world, “I’ve found Him!”
Dr. Michel Dodds, Dean of the College
