December 23, 2004

A gift for St. Paul Church, just in time for Christmas

Photo by Diane Chiddister

Tessa Renee Thomas, left, and Tiana Thomas admire the baby Jesus figurine, which was recently returned to St. Paul Catholic Church. The figurine will officially be placed in the church’s manger on Christmas Eve. Tessa Renee and Tiana are the daughters of Adriana Thomas, the housekeeper of the church’s rectory.

By Diane Chiddister

Some details differ between the traditional Christmas story and baby Jesus’ recent arrival in Yellow Springs. In the traditional story, Jesus was born in a Bethlehem stable and lay in a hay-filled manger. In Yellow Springs, baby Jesus arrived via UPS, swaddled in styrofoam peanuts and bubble wrap.

But to those close to St. Paul Catholic Church, where the figurine of baby Jesus arrived last week, the stories share the same timeless themes: both speak of the human capacity for goodness, and both suggest that miracles happen.

“It’s a big deal to us,” said Gail Chambers, the secretary of St. Paul. “It gave us a good feeling. There was a good Samaritan out there who thought enough to return it to us.”

St. Paul’s baby Jesus figurine arrived in town last Tuesday, almost a year since it vanished. The center of the church’s outdoor nativity scene, the baby Jesus was stolen last year, not long after he was placed in his manger on Christmas Eve.

It wasn’t the first time the church’s baby Jesus vanished. Over the years — nobody at St. Paul remembers exactly when the church started its nativity tradition — pranksters repeatedly snatched the Christ child. He’s turned up in a local barn, and two years ago a figurine of his mother, Mary, was found lounging on the roof of the Yellow Springs Freeze.

Church employees shrugged off the vandalism with good humor, and never considered discontinuing their tradition. The creche serves a valuable purpose to both St. Paul’s parishioners and to the community, St. Paul’s priest, Father Joseph Raudabaugh, believes.

“It reminds people of the fact of the incarnation, that the son of God was one of us and that it happened in humble circumstances, in a barn,” he said.

Though the plastic nativity figurines enjoyed unexpected adventures, they were returned anonymously sooner or later, according to Chambers.

“They always came back,” she said. “You just never knew when.”

But the continued vandalism did create some frustration. So two years ago St. Paul’s officials didn’t resist when offered a gift that seemed to promise a baby Jesus who would, finally, stay put.

Longtime parishioners Paul and Juanita Richardson donated a new nativity scene. But this wasn’t an ordinary manger — its figures were fashioned from concrete. This baby Jesus weighs about 30 pounds, enough, the Richardsons hoped, to give pranksters pause.

To prepare the new nativity scene, three parishioners, Anne Sidney, Grace Alexander and Chandra Graham, spent many hours painting the concrete figures. They wanted to do it right, Sidney said, and sought historical accuracy in picture books and Bibles. There would be no European blue eyes and blond hair for this nativity family, who, instead, share the dark skin, eyes and hair of the Semitic people of the time, with their northern African roots.

But the new Christ child’s political correctness and backbreaking weight didn’t daunt last year’s vandals, who swiped baby Jesus soon after he was laid in the manger. A month passed, then another, and when the figure hadn’t been returned by Easter, church officials thought he was gone for good.

So in June, Chambers was astonished to get a phone call from a young man in Milwaukee, who described himself as a “friend of a friend of a friend” of the person who lifted Jesus. The prankster, who had since moved to Wisconsin, planned to dump the Christ child figurine in the trash in an upcoming move, but this young man wanted to save him. He was planning a trip to Yellow Springs, he said, and he’d bring baby Jesus along.

Then more months went by, and pretty soon the whole thing looked like a hoax. August passed, then September. In October, Chambers called the man’s phone number and got no response. So St. Paul Church planned to put out its nativity scene, as usual, with one difference — the manger would be empty.

In early December, however, the young man called again. His trip never panned out, he reported, so he planned to mail the figurine. He declined the offer to be reimbursed for the cost of shipping, Chambers said, saying that his friends had already chipped in for postage.

Last week, baby Jesus pulled up in a UPS truck. He arrived a bit worse for the wear, with one chipped finger, but Chambers believes he looks good, with his earnest dark face and clear eyes.

And at the beginning of midnight mass on Christmas Eve, he will be placed, once again, in the outdoor manger, after which St. Paul parishioners will light candles and celebrate the miracle of his birth.