The story is told of a christening that was to be held many years ago by a wealthy European family. Many guests were invited to the home for the occasion and came in the latest fashionable garb. Their wraps and coats were carried to a bedroom and laid upon the beds. After the usual lot of conversation and commotion, they were ready for the christening ceremony and someone asked, "Where is the baby?" The nurse was sent upstairs to look and returned in alarmed distress. The baby was nowhere to be found! After several minutes' search, someone remembered that the child had last been seen lying on one of the beds. After a frantic search, the little child was found smothered under the wraps of the guests! The chief reason why they had come had been forgotten, neglected, and destroyed! This Christmas, many will forget, neglect, and even destroy the Christ child! He will be smothered by the tinsel, wrapping paper, ribbon, and make-believe that surround His big day! Do you know where the Baby Jesus is in your Christmas celebrations??

If you were a visitor from another world, and came around Christmastime, and were told what Christmas is about, and then observed everything going on in the world for celebrating Christmas, do you think it is possible that you would ask the question: "Where's the Baby Jesus?" If someone visited your household, and observed your celebration of Christmas over these few weeks, would they ask, "Where's the Baby Jesus?" Has He kind of been smothered under so many of the other things that fill your house and your heart at this time of the year?

If you are a sinful human being like myself, then I am pretty sure that you have been guilty of leaving Jesus out of Christmas. It's something we are all guilty of, to an extent. Let's ponder for a few minutes what Christmas without Jesus would be like… Without the Baby Jesus, Christmas is MATERIALISTIC. It's all about stuff: getting stuff, giving stuff, getting and giving the right stuff; presents, packages, boxes, bows, etc! Without the Baby Jesus, Christmas is FLEETING. In a couple days, the discarded trees will be decorating the curbs of our streets more than the living rooms of our houses, shedding needles like snow in a blizzard. Toys will already be returned, broken, or forgotten. The yuletide spirit will have picked up and left until next year. Without the Baby Jesus, Christmas is DISAPPOINTING. If your Christmas depends on how well your party went, how much your loved one loved your gift, how cute your children looked in their Christmas portrait, or how much time you got to relax away from work, you will probably be disappointed year after year. Without the Baby Jesus, Christmas is STRESSFUL! I don't even have to explain why that is true. I am sure most of you are sitting here, rejoicing about the stress behind you, and dreading the stress still coming.

Finally, without the Baby Jesus, Christmas would mean a LOSS OF HOPE. Christmas is supposed to be the guarantee of God's promises fulfilled, the wedding ring God gave us guaranteeing a future with Him, the assurance of forgiveness, peace, hope, and love undeserved. But without the Baby Jesus in our Christmas, all of those things disappear with a poof! And Christmas, instead of giving hope, then takes it away. We are left with guilt, failure, and sadness. So Where's the Baby Jesus? We need Him in our Christmas!

We also need Him in our lives! Where is the Baby Jesus in our day-to-day lives? Where's the Baby Jesus when we are skipping church? Where's the Baby Jesus when we are cursing, using his name for evil, or laughing along with dirty jokes? Where's the Baby Jesus when we aren't listening to or obeying our parents? Where's the Baby Jesus when we hurt other people or let our eyes gaze too long on images or things that lead us into sin? Where's the Baby Jesus when we steal from our workplaces or our government, when we gossip about others, or when we burn with desire for things that we shouldn't have? He's not there, is He? At least, we don't act like He is. Do you see how badly we need Him to be in our lives? We fail without Him!

But in spite of our failures, God sent Him here anyway! He sent Him here as the answer to all those problems that we struggle with! So Where's the Baby Jesus? God told the shepherds where to find Him…and the shepherds found Him right where He was supposed to be:

Lying in a Manger in Bethlehem! That's where the Baby Jesus was! Just as promised! The promise God gave through the prophet Micah hundreds of years earlier was fulfilled! The Word became flesh! God came to this earth as a man to be our Savior! To live under the law we had failed to keep - so that someone could keep it for us and make us right with God! We hear in Galatians: "But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons." Where's the Baby Jesus? Born on this earth as one of us, so He could be our Savior and bring us peace with God!

Where's the Baby Jesus? Living the Perfect Life We Couldn't! As we study further about his life, we see Jesus living the kind of life God wanted you and me to live! Where's the Baby Jesus now? He is loving others selflessly. He is serving others sacrificially. He is healing. He is helping. He is teaching about God's kingdom. He is being perfect. And that perfection is what God gives you and me credit for!

But where's the Baby Jesus now? Dying on the Cross! Why? He was perfect! Why such awful punishment? Why was He separated from his Father? Why? Because He was paying the punishment that our sins deserve! He was wiping our slates clean! Forgiving us!

Three days later, we go looking for the Baby Jesus in his tomb. But Where's the Baby Jesus now?? He's Not in the Tomb! Why? He is Risen! He is alive! He is appearing to his disciples instead! He has conquered death for us! He has assured us that all our sins have been taken away, and that death no longer defeats us! We will live with Him forever!

So then, Where's the Baby Jesus? Ascending into Heaven! He went there to rule all things for our good, promising us that He will make everything that happens in our lives work out for the good of our eternal souls. And as we see Him ascending to heaven, He leaves us with the promise: "I am with you always…" So Where's the Baby Jesus? He is with us right now! He fills heaven and earth, and is all present everywhere! Comforting us with his love!

So tonight, right now, right here, Where's the Baby Jesus? He is in Your Heart! He is simply inviting you to trust that He has done all these things for you. When you believe in Him as your Savior, Jesus, the Baby Jesus, is right there in your heart, filling it with the faith that will connect you with your loving God forever and ever! That's where the Baby Jesus is!!

Can you imagine a nativity scene without the Baby Jesus? I heard a story about a woman who proudly displayed one each Christmas. For her, it was a good reminder of a past holiday. It was the year that her parents decided to divorce after 36 years of marriage, and she was filled with disappointment and sadness that year, missing all the warm childhood memories.

Despite her feelings, for her children's sake, she decided to join the last-minute Christmas shoppers. They pushed, shoved, and complained as they grabbed from shelves and racks. A small nativity scene had fallen to the floor in front of her cart and broken into several pieces. She was just about to reach down and put it back up when she heard a loud, sharp voice cry out: "Sarah! You get that thing out of your mouth right now 'fore I slap you!" "But Mommy! I wasn't puttin' it in my mouth! See, Mommy? I was kissin' it! Look, Mommy, it's a little baby Jesus!" "Well, I don't care what it is! You put it down right now! You hear me?" "But come look, Mommy," the child insisted, "It's all broken. It's a little manger and the baby Jesus got broked off!"

The girl appeared to be 4 or 5 years old and not properly dressed for the cold, wet weather. Bright, colorful pieces of yarn were tied on the ends of her braids, making her look cheerful despite her ragged attire. The mother was paying no attention to the child, but was anxiously looking through the marked-down winter coats on the bargain rack. She was also shabbily dressed, and her torn, dirty tennis shoes were wet from the snow. Asleep in her shopping cart was a small baby bundled in an old blanket.

"Mommy!" the little girl called to her, "Can we buy this here little Baby Jesus? We can set him on the table by the couch and we could…" "I told you to put that thing down!" her mother interrupted. "You get yourself over here right now or I'm gonna give you a spankin'. You hear me?" Angrily, the mother hurried toward the child. The woman watching feared the worst. But after some silence, when she peeked again, she was astonished to see the mother kneeling on the wet, dirty floor holding the child close to her trembling body. She struggled to say something, but only managed a desperate sob. "Don't cry, Mommy!" the child pleaded. Wrapping her arms around her mother, she apologized for her behavior. "I'm sorry I wasn't good in this store. I promise I won't ask for nothin' else! I don't want this here little baby Jesus. Really I don't. See, I'll put him back here in the manger. Please don't cry no more, Mommy!"

"I'm sorry too, honey!" answered her mother. "You know I don't have enough money to buy anything extra right now, and I'm just crying 'cause I wished I did - it being Christmas and all - but I bet come Christmas morning', if you promise to be a real good girl, you just might find them pretty little play dishes you been wantin', and maybe next year we can get us a real Christmas tree. How about that!" "You know what, Mommy?" the child asked excitedly. "I don't really need this here little baby Jesus doll anyhow! You know why? 'Cause my Sunday school teacher says Jesus really lives in your heart! I'm glad He lives in my heart, aren't you, Mommy?"

The woman watched the child take her mother's hand and walk to the front of the store. The child's simple words were echoing in her mind: "Jesus lives in my heart." She looked at the nativity scene and realized that a baby born in a stable some 2000 years ago is a person who still walks with us today, making his presence known, comforting us with his forgiveness, working to bring us through all the difficulties of life, if only we will let Him! The woman offered a quick prayer of thanks for all the blessings in her life, especially the blessing of God's Son.

Then she quickly grabbed the various pieces of the nativity scene and hurried to the check-out counter. She asked one of the clerks to give the doll to the little girl who was then leaving the store with her mother, and explained that she would pay for it later. She watched the child accept the gift and then give baby Jesus another kiss as she walked out the door, while she paid for the rest of the nativity scene at the counter. …Now, that little broken nativity scene reminds her every year of a child whose simple words touched her life. The Baby Jesus is not there, of course, but every time she looks at the empty manger, she knows she can answer the question, "Where's the Baby Jesus?" He's in my heart! Amen.

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