Listen

Each year his parents went to Jerusalem for the Passover Festival. When he was 12 years old, they went up to Jerusalem according to their custom. After the festival was over, they were returning home, but the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents didn’t know it. Supposing that he was among their band of travelers, they journeyed on for a full day while looking for him among their family and friends.

Luke 2:41-44

Think

Imagine the work involved in going up to Jerusalem for the Passover. They had to pack their own food, including feed for the animals, plus any other supplies they might need. The walk was 65 miles (as the crow flies). When they arrived, they came to a city filled with pilgrims from all over the known world, packed shoulder to shoulder in the markets and the outer courts of the temple. After the feast, returning with the whole traveling party was just as much work, only now with added fatigue. Is it any wonder that a single tween boy got overlooked in the chaos? It was the original Home Alone.

The message of Christmas is that Jesus now lives among us, but I wonder how often we overlook him in the overcrowdedness of our lives. In the packing and the working and the walking and the feasting of this day-to-day existence, it is easy to “lose” Jesus. How might we awaken today to Jesus’s presence with us?

Ellen Di Giosia

Pray

O God, my days are crowded with too many things to prepare for, too many things to do, and too many things to keep up with.

Help me not to simply turn, one day after Christmas, back to the chaos of my everyday life.

Help me to see Jesus and not overlook him, however he might show himself to me.

Amen.

Go

Jesus has come, and he is here, living among us. Life will never be the same.

So take a deep breath and turn your eyes to the world. Find him there.