John 14:9: Anyone
who has seen Me has seen the Father.
Matthew 2:1-2:
After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in
Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem
and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We
saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”
I am so happy
my kings have finally arrived at my nativity scene. I put my set up a few weeks
before Christmas, but leave the manger empty. Just as my father taught me to do
so long ago, I ceremoniously place Jesus in the manger on Christmas morning,
and to be honest, I still feel the excitement I did when I was a little girl
and it was my turn to do the honors. The next step is to place the kings far
off on the side of the display area. My dad would bring the kings up on
Christmas morning and place them at a distance from the shepherds and the
stable. Little by little they would make their way across the buffet until
finally, on January 6th, the Feast of the Epiphany, they would
arrive at the stable and get close to the baby Jesus. How thrilling! I was always
so happy that they made it! To be honest, I still am!
Now that I am
somewhat older and hopefully wiser, I can see so much meaning behind the kings’
slow yet deliberate trek across my family’s buffet, or in the real story, from
the “east” to Bethlehem. They were seekers, men of great knowledge who knew
that all the words they had read and all the facts they possessed were not
enough. There was still something missing from their lives, and they were
determined to find it. They followed the star, which they knew from their
readings meant the birth of a great king, and they stayed true to their
purpose, never taking their eyes off the point of light which would bring
them to the truth, the ultimate wisdom, the ever-loving and powerful God of the
universe. They found a little baby, but they knew, and they fell to their knees
in worship. They were gentiles, foreigners, unwelcomed in the land in which
they traveled, yet they were welcomed and loved by the baby.
We are the
kings, the seekers, the searchers of the world. We know a good deal about a lot
of things today, but as Christians, we are wisest in knowing that we will never
possess all the knowledge there is to possess about God. And so we fix our eyes
on the light of our faith, on the scriptures and the sacraments and the holy
men and women God has given to us to lead us to Him. And when we find ourselves
in front of Him in the Blessed Sacrament, in the manger in our nativity scenes,
and in our hearts, we fall in adoration and awe that such a mighty and powerful
God deigns to come to us in swaddling clothes, in a host, in the rays of love
which fill us and make us whole. We are the magi, we are the foreigners in a
world that understands us not, and yet we keep to our path and continue our
journey, no matter the cost. Unlike the magi, however, we do not need to return
to our homes. We have found our home in Christ, and it is with Him that we will
stay for all eternity.
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