Many Christmas cards show three kings walking toward Bethlehem. Yet the Bible doesn't tell us that they were kings nor that there were three of them! We're told that they were 'wise men from the East' and that they carried three different gifts, but that's all. The important thing is that they came-not what their status was or how many of them there were.
In the church calendar, they arrived not on the 25th of December, but on the 6th of January, which is celebrated as 'the feast of the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles.' As my birthday is January 6, I've always had particular interest in this part of the Bible story.
The Wise Men come 'late,'-twelve days after the birth of the Savior-but they still come. They come from 'outside'-as Gentiles, not members of the people of Israel-but they still come. They come a long way-but they still come.
They come to him because he came to them. He came first and formost in the newborn baby laying in the manager. But he also came to the Wise Men by means of the star that announced his birth and by means of their intelligence and courage which inspired them to undergo the grueling and hazardous journey.
For Jesus is not only the Truth and the Life, he is also the Way. As we go toward him, we are already meeting him every step of the way. Unless he wanted us, we would not be wanting him.
I once received a Christmas card that had no picture on it, but just the words: 'Wise men still seek Him.' May we be wise men, wise women, wise children this Christmas.
Continue seeking Him with seriousness.
Unless He wanted you, you would not be wanting Him.
C. S. Lewis, letter to Genia Goelz, June 13, 1951
O God, who by the leading of a star revealed your Son Jesus Christ to the Wise Men: mercifully grant us wisdom to know that we would not be seeking him unless he was first seeking us. Amen.
Michael Ward, the author of Planet Narnia, is a Fellow of Blackfriars Hall, University of Oxford, and professor of apologitics at Houston Baptist University. December 25 - SEEK HIM. "The Grand Miracle, daily reflections for the season of Advent." Christian History Institute. Worcester, PA & Marion E. Wade Center. Wheaton, IL. 2019.
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