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Finding the Jesus You Thought You Lost

Most parents, at some time or another, have had the experience of thinking they have lost their child. It happened to us when our children were small. We were in the Disney Store at the mall. As we got ready to leave the store, we suddenly realized our middle son, Jon, was not with us. He was probably 5 years old or younger at the time. We looked all around the store. He was nowhere to be found. Then we stepped outside the store and looked in every direction. Finally, we saw him, one store down, standing with a security guard. What a relief!   Well, I think almost every parent can identify. And the story we are going to read today from the Gospel of Luke is a story about two parents losing their son and finding him again. But the story is also about so much more. Listen for God’s word to you from Luke 2:41-52…   Now every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover.   And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival.   ...

The Messiah in a Manger

  Christmas is a time of surprises. A lady was preparing her Christmas cookies. There came a knock at the door. She went to find a man, his clothes poor, obviously looking for some Christmas odd jobs. He asked her if there was anything he could do. She said, “Can you paint?”  “Yes,” he said. “I’m a rather good painter.”  “Well,” she said, “there are two gallons of green paint there and a brush, and there’s a porch out back that needs to be painted. Please do a good job. I’ll pay you what the job is worth.”  He said, “Fine. I’ll be done quickly.”  She went back to her cookie making and didn’t think much more about it until there was a knock at the door. She went, and the obviousness of his painting was evident: he had paint all over his clothes. She said, “Did you finish the job.”  He said, “Yes.”  She said, “Did you do a good job?” He said, “Yes. But lady, there’s one thing I’d like to point out to you. That’s not a Porsche back there. That’s a Merced...