Baby Jesus(es) Found

Happy New Year to all. After a couple of weeks of holiday merriment, I found it tough to get back into the swing of things today. How about you?

An early morning call today from one colleague summed it up for me: "Now that the cards are out, the shopping is done and the guests have come and gone, I'm finally ready to celebrate the holidays."

Me, too.

For those of us who are up for a bit more celebrating, the Feast of the Epiphany is just a few days away. As we approach this last gasp of the Christmas season, this little ditty at beliefnet.com made me pause.

It seems that in one New Jersey community, the Baby Jesus has had a rough go this season. Apparently, a group of teenagers have been charged with stealing several statues of the Christ child in and around Sayreville, NJ. New Jersey police uncovered the statue stash in a parked car outside the home of an 18-year-old who was among those arrested for the crimes against the nativity.

The father of the alleged statue stealer had this to say.

"Michael has been hanging around the wrong people. He goes to college. He's an outstanding young kid."

Uh-huh. A perfect kid...until one day he decides to swipe a couple dozen Jesus statues.

One positive lesson comes from this caper. As Rev. Ken Murphy, pastor of St. Stanislaus Church -- which was victimized from the crime -- told his flock, we don't need to see Baby Jesus in the Nativity to be reminded of the true celebration of Christmas.

"As I told people ..., the most important thing is, we celebrated the birth of Jesus. Jesus is in many different places. If they saw the display and saw he wasn't there, they would be reminded that he is in them."

Amen.