Where’s the baby?

Iddo has been intent on finding Jesus for a while now. For over a year she’s pointed him out in every picture she sees him in. Christmas 2014 she wasn’t that into the baby Jesus though. Since then we added two babies to our family and she now spends a lot of her time taking care of her babies just like she sees me do. As Christmas approached last year she took an intense interest in the baby Jesus. She took great care of the baby Jesus figure in a plush nativity we have. And she loved to point out the baby Jesus in the Christmas books we have.

One book was The Tale of the Three Trees. When the first tree became a manger she asked, “Where’s the baby?” We easily identified the baby Jesus in the illustration.

The second tree becomes a fishing boat and she again asked, “Where’s the baby?” She was able to identify the grown Jesus calming the storm in the illustration.

The third tree becomes a rough beam. As the illustrations showed a man bent over carrying the beam and then a cross on the hill, Iddo asked a third time, “Where’s the baby?”

I thought of my babies, how no matter how big they get they will always be my babies and it will always hurt me when they hurt.

And I thought of Mary at the cross. That was her baby. We know God sent an angel to comfort his Son in the Garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22:43). I have to believe he did at least that to comfort the mother of his Son as a sword pierced through her soul (Luke 2:35).

The baby of Christmas is the Savior of Easter.