GLASGOW yesterday witnessed the second coming of Christ.
It was truly a historic occasion, and not without a touch of Glaswegian malapropism. As the new glass-fibre baby Jesus - cost #600 - laid down his sweet head, one young voice began singing ``A wean in a manger''.
Glasgow's original baby Jesus was stolen more than a week ago from the city's George Square Nativity scene. The theft was not an opportunist prank as the glass-encased scene is kept locked and the thief must have used heavy-duty wire or bolt cutters to cut the lock.
The figures in the Nativity scene, which originally cost #16,000 when commissioned in 1988, were made in clay and then cast in bronze-effect glass fibre. The thief may have thought it was valuable bronze but would have realised his mistake when he lifted the life-sized sculpture.
The theft allowed newspaper headline writers a field day of dreadful puns, which included ``Jesus Heist'' and ``Halo, halo, halo''. Despite the continuing publicity, there has been no trace of the original model.
Even an impassioned plea for information from no less a figure than Mr Pat Lally, the council leader, failed to move the stony hearts of the culprits.
And lo, it came to pass yesterday that the second Jesus was laid in his manger, again completing the Nativity scene which includes Mary, Joseph, the three wise men, three shepherds, a donkey, ox, sheep, and an angel.
Glasgow Lord Provost Tommy Dingwall said: ``It was very disappointing to learn that someone had been so mean minded as to steal the original baby Jesus sculpture and sad that despite all the publicity we were unable to recover it''.
However, seasoned Nativity watchers will have noticed that the born-again Christ looks slightly different.
``He looks completely different this time round because we couldn't remember the first design we used six years ago,'' said the original creator, sculptor Andrew Scott.
This time, the council is taking no chances. A security camera of the type used to watch errant motorists is being trained on the manger night and day.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article