Stolen Baby Jesus

The parable of sower is found in Mark 4, and after Jesus relates it to a large crowd, He explains it more fully to His disciples:
14 "The sower sows the word. 15 "These are the ones who are beside the road where the word is sown ; and when they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them. 16 "In a similar way these are the ones on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy ; 17 and they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary ; then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away. 18 "And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns ; these are the ones who have heard the word, 19 but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. 20 "And those are the ones on whom seed was sown on the good soil ; and they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold."

Something strange is afoot in the area around Fredericksburg, Virginia...you may have heard that last week a baby Jesus statue was reported missing from a shopping center there.   Well, the statue has been found...with the help of social media.   You see, the 25-year-old woman who allegedly took the statue put pictures of it on Facebook - a citizen saw the post and turned in a screen grab to police, before the post was taken down.   Since the statue had been filled with cement to prevent theft and weighed 80 pounds, it's likely someone helped the lady steal it.

And, there have been other reports of baby Jesus statues being stolen in the area, according to the Washington Post.   And, yes, you just have to wonder why someone would do such a thing...

But, you know, I had to think on how we allow Jesus to be stolen from us, in terms of the manifestation of His presence through our lives.  The Bible tells us in John 10:10 that the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but Jesus comes to bring abundant life.  The enemy, Satan, desires to limit the work of God from our lives and diminish the fruit we produce for Him.   And, in the parable of the sower in Mark 4, Jesus says that to non-believers or nominal believers, the enemy steals the seed of God's word immediately.   Then He outlines other factors that can steal God's word and the presence of Jesus from our lives - affliction, persecution, the worries of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things.   Perhaps there are areas of your life that keep Jesus from having His rightful place in your life, and steal the seed that can produce fruit, robbing us of the joy of His presence. 

In Fredericksburg, the baby Jesus is back in His rightful place - for you this Christmas, is the Lord Jesus inhabiting His rightful position in your heart, or have you allowed the pressures of this world and the tools of the enemy of our souls, to steal Him away?