“Put Jesus back in your backpack, so you don’t lose Him.”

As soon as the words left my mouth, I realized how absurd they sounded. Lydia does weekly presentations as part of our homeschool community group. This week she had selected a favorite PJ Masks book to read to the class. We put it in her backpack the night before, but just as we were headed out the door on Wednesday morning, Lydia ran to our child-proof Nativity, plucked Jesus from His warm, cozy manger, and declared, “I’m going to tell my friends about Jesus!”

“That’s great!” I told her. “We can save your PJ Masks book for next time.”

“Both!” she retorted, zipped Jesus into her backpack, and marched out the door.

What’s a mom to say to that?!?

I missed her presentation because my dear friend and Lydia’s tutor, Ms. Jenny’s son got his finger stuck in his tin whistle, and I was honored to serve as part of his rescue team. (Yes, that actually happened.) So I don’t know exactly how Lydia juxtaposed Jesus with the PJ Masks, but the more I thought about it, the more the connections became obvious. After all, Jesus knew when it was “Time to be a hero!” and He most certainly went “Into the night to save the day!”

I also kept thinking about the words I had spoken to Lydia at the end of her class’s presentation time. In a weird sort of way, they reminded me of a conviction I experienced a few weeks ago. I had been struggling intensely with my thought life. I knew I was expending far too much emotional energy thinking about people whose decisions had hurt me, and I knew it was pointless, but I couldn’t seem to stop. Until I sensed the Lord asking me what would happen if I devoted that much thought and analysis to Him? I started intentionally replacing thoughts of these people with thoughts of Jesus—a story about Him, a name, a Scripture verse, a prayer. The effects were powerful. Not only did it become very unappealing to expend energy on people and things totally out of my influence, but the “detox” period developed a habit of directing my thoughts toward the One who IS worthy of them, and that made a difference in many unexpected aspects of my life.

So I think that as absurd as it sounded when I uttered those words to Lydia yesterday, they are actually filled with an element of truth. We should put Jesus back in our backpacks–and our purses, backpockets, iPhones, conversations, marriages, friendships, social lives, decisions, habits, and thoughts–not so that we don’t lose Him, but so that we don’t lose SIGHT of Him…because He isn’t the one who gets lost.  We are.

“Abide in me, and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.” (John 15:4, ESV)