Bearing gifts, we traverse afar

I first saw this news on Facebook while I was on vacation. I was with friends at their house, and one of them was scrolling through all the Christmas messages in her feed when she came across this:

"I can't believe somebody stole the baby Jesus from the manger at church!"

Our church is in a sometimes-rough neighborhood, and we've had some security issues. The rent-a-cop we hire is clearly not so good at his job. We kind of laughed about it as we read through the responses. Maybe the baby had been taken for a walk. Maybe he'd return wearing a handmade sweater. Maybe somebody needed to put out an Amber Alert. Or wait for a ransom note.

And at the bottom of the list, this post:

"Really? Again?"

It turns out, this isn't the first time the Jesus figurine has been stolen from my church's manger scene. But the first time, it was returned. Wearing a carefully hand-knit cap. And sweater. In a pretty blue.

Yes, seriously.

The church is pretty big and kind of drafty. Most people show up in layers. Maybe somebody thought this inanimate object was cold. At least they were thoughtful enough to return it.

This time, the baby's been gone for a week, with no hint of its whereabouts. Perhaps the Three Kings will bring him back this weekend.