Jesus?

Remember this guy that resides in my office?

He’s pretty cool. Fun office mate. Sometimes I would give him a high five on my way out the door. You know, just a way to say, “Hey, thanks for being here, Jesus” or “Hey, Jesus, you’re pretty boss.”

Last Wednesday night he went missing. Jesus was no where to be found. It was the empty tomb all over again and I was a Mary.

After we had cleaned up from of Women of Grace event, it was nearing 9pm. Karen and I then spent the next half hour looking for Jesus, certain that someone had just moved him but concerned that it might have been the high school choir kids who were there that night. We would feel better going home if we knew where Jesus was.

We checked all the obvious places – Tammy’s office. Nope. Emily’s office. Nope. Kendall’s bathroom. Nope. Where was Jesus?

Jesus has been known to be moved every once in a while, to surprise a staff member or bring comfort. (Really, the former more than the latter. Comfort? This Jesus tends to scare the bejesus* out of me if he moves.) But Karen and I looked everywhere and found the statue of our Lord no where.

We find out the next day that Jesus had ascended. To the cemetery. The original intent of the Jesus statue was that he be placed in the cemetery but after the statue had hung out in the intern’s office for more than two years, it was a surprise when it actually happened.

And so suddenly. I didn’t have a chance to say goodbye to my faithful office mate. As Kendall told me in pastoral-care-via-text-message, “The Lord works in mysterious ways.” I walked to the cemetery today to visit my buddy. He looks good, perched and preaching from a rock in the middle of a round-a-bout. It is nice to know that he hasn’t gone too far and I can still visit him when I feel so moved to spend time in the cemetery.

* bejesus : an exclamation traditionally attributed to the Irish, used to express surprise or for emphasis. they were forty minutes late, cocky as bejesus (the example used in my apple dictionary).