Baby Jesus Gets A GPS for Christmas
GPS And Jesus; did you think the two would ever be mentioned in the same sentence?
I never thought that would happen, but I guess I was wrong.
Recently a baby Jesus was stolen from a nativity scene in Bal Harbour, a south Florida community, just north of Miami.
For over six years, local resident Dina Cellini has put up a nativity display complete with a baby Jesus in Bal Harbour’s Founders Circle. The baby Jesus was stolen just three days after Cellini put the nativity scene up this year.
After the baby Jesus was stolen, Cellini went on a local radio show and pleaded for the return of the statue. The thief did not respond.
However, a Cincinnati resident named Jeffrey Harris read about the crime on-line, and came to the rescue by offering to replace the baby Jesus. Harris commented on his donation saying, “Even though I am Jewish, I like the Christmas spirit. I felt bad. How can someone steal a baby Jesus?”
The new baby Jesus arrived last Tuesday, just in time for the Christmas holiday. The baby Jesus was placed into the nativity scene, although not without some new company.
A four-foot plexiglass screen was installed in front of the display that is impossible to reach across. And just to make sure the statue doesn’t turn up missing again, Jesus, Mary and Joseph will all be equipped with GPS tracking devices.
Ultimately I can’t believe someone would want to steal a baby Jesus. Its a very sad state of affairs when you have to embed GPS tracking devices in a nativity scene. But I guess that’s the world we live in. However if someone steals the baby Jesus in the future, officials should be able to locate the thief and the figure relatively quickly.
Once again this story is a great reminder, that technology is becoming more and more a part of our lives; even if it’s being used to track figures of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Cellini may of said it best by commenting, “I don’t anticipate this will ever happen again, but we may need to rely on technology to save our savior.”