mary's come unglued

Yesterday, I was pulling the last of the Christmas decorations out of the box and, when I took out our tiny nativity set, this is what I saw.

That's right. Mary is missing.

If you look closely, you can see the tiny bit of leftover adhesive on the empty side of the manger where Mary used to kneel in front of the baby Jesus.

Upon discovering that our nativity set was minus one, I said to David, "Mary's come unglued!" And then immediately busted out laughing.

As a new mama myself, I began to imagine the many different reasons that Mary might have fled the stable.

Maybe she was tired of kneeling and looking at baby Jesus all day long. I mean, I'm sure he was cute and all, but staring at a baby all day long isn't exactly scintillating.

Or maybe she was tired of the sheep's incessant baaing that kept her baby awake at naptime.

Or maybe she was tired of 2 a.m. feedings. Even the Son of God had to eat at 2 a.m. and I'm pretty sure Mary didn't have a Medela pump so Joseph could share the responsibility of feeding the crying babe.

And Joseph. Maybe she was tired of picking up Joseph's underwear off the stable floor. And getting left behind in the stable while he was off doing carpentry work.

Maybe she missed her family. And Elizabeth, her sister-friend.

Maybe she took a well-deserved vacation by herself at some hot springs resort in the desert.

Maybe she was tired of only being known as a mother, and left in an effort to resuscitate a piece of her former life. (I like to imagine her organizing women and peasants for higher wages.)

Maybe she was just tired.

Anyway, you'll be relieved to know that I found Mary at the bottom of the Christmas box. And I returned her to her place in the manger.

However.

She's no longer glued down. And I kind of like it that way.

I've decided that, every couple of days, I'm going to relieve her from her mama duties and put her somewhere else. By herself. Somewhere quiet. At least for a couple of hours.

I think Mary deserves a silent night every now and then.