"Jesus in Underoos"

“I took Jesus as my Savior, you take him too…” and so they did! The story line read, “Baby Jesus goes missing from landmark nativity at Florence church.” The story goes on to say, “Away in the manger at Florence's First Baptist Church, there's no Baby Jesus asleep in the hay. Somebody made off with him. Church members noticed after worship on Christmas morning that the key figure in their nativity scene was missing. The police were notified and a search ensued. Church members were busy again Thursday, literally beating the bushes around the church in hopes of finding a discarded babe somewhere on the grounds.” The story about the Baby Jesus brings me to certain observations. I hope I can explain them well enough.

I grew up in Florence and remember driving by that same manger scene year after year with my mom and dad and brothers. Us boys would roll the window down in the warm car, when the weather was cold, and stick our heads out to see if we could see the baby Jesus, lying in the manger. Sure enough…he was always there. But as I get older and understand scripture better, I think about the baby different. I ask the question, “Why? Why have we kept Jesus…a baby?

We have kept the all consuming, all powerful, all knowing, all able, ever present, future making, life changing, the Alfa and Omega, creator of the universe…a manageable little baby…Why? Maybe, for some, because we want to manage things, our lives, our neighborhoods, our nations, our universe. Surely we must know more than a little baby Jesus...don’t we? Here is a true statement…He aint no baby! Pardon the “aint” please.

Jesus is not a little baby any longer…and maybe Christ followers should figure out a way to convey that to our kids, our extended families, our friends, our state, and our nation and take that message worldwide.

We can’t buy a baby figurine of Superman, or Captain America. We can’t buy a baby figurine of the greatest athletes, or of the smartest people ever known. No… we see old photos of John Wayne, “The Duke” as a tall swaggering cowboy ready to shoot it out with whomever he needs to. I have never seen a baby picture of John Wayne when they were advertising his next movie coming on the TBS network…have you? Have you ever seen baby photos of cage fighters squaring off…no…they show dangerous, well trained men getting ready to rumble.

So, I ask myself again, even though it is cute and makes me feel warm and fuzzy to see a freshly painted manger scene…are manger scenes of little baby Jesus really portraying him correctly? No!

When I describe Jesus to anyone in range of hearing, I want him or her to know without a shadow of a doubt, that they, no matter who they are, and I will have to give an account for what we have done with this life we have been given. I want people to know that I will not stand before a baby Jesus. I will stand before Jesus who sits at the right hand of God the Father… his Father. We need to be careful in remembering that Jesus, as a man, was brutally beaten, hung on a cross, died and was buried for our sins…not his own…and Jesus rose the third day as scripture and the prophets and he said he would.

We will not be condemned for not following a baby Jesus…but we will definitely be condemned for not following the one and only grown up Jesus!

Grown up Jesus said,
John 14:6 “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Another thought struck me as I listened to some laughter from people who had read the article and commented on the baby Jesus figurine showing up at Starbucks or Walmart.

Would people even know and understand, on a Biblical level, what this funny figurine, of a baby, even represented.

Millions of people around the globe, who were not raised up driving around town with Christian parents looking at Christmas lights and manger scenes, would have no idea what the baby Jesus figurine represented.

Millions of people around the globe have no idea about the real reason for the season. Christ followers should celebrate the birth of our Savior, the Savior of the World, each and every moment of the day. It is not the fault of those whom do not understand...that fault lies with us...Christ followers, who are willing to keep the Savior and King of Kings, in underoos!

Christ followers have much to do. We have much to explain. We have much to live out, in front of others, so that they might come to know the real… grown up Jesus.