Baby in Waiting

Baby in waiting, Charleston, S.C.

If someone you know gives birth at Bon Secours St. Francis Hospital today their baby will be in good company. All week long people have been stopping at the hospital's information desk reporting that Baby Jesus is missing from the manger scene.

He isn't missing - he hasn't been born yet.

At midnight on Christmas Eve, one of the nurses in the Newborn Nursery will take him out of the crib he has been waiting in, call for Security to escort her out and gently lay Him in the manger. It is a sweet tradition that has been going on for as long as I remember. In the olden days the nuns used to do the honor but now it has been passed on to the experts in baby care.