The three Kings did not look with their human eyes, and reject what they saw in the dust and the smell around them, they looked with the eyes of their soul…
We are already in August. And that is a big deal. You see, it means we are finished with the first part of the year and already into the second part.
And for me, the first part of the year is associated with Easter, and the second part is associated with Christmas. And I have been reflecting on that today.
You see, Christmas is a time of year when we celebrate the Birth of Our Lord. When I was a little girl, that birth was cause for great celebration as Christmas meant parties and presents and lovely food and family holidays and lots and lots of very exciting things…
But as I grew older, I came to realise that Christmas is of course about a great deal more than that! Christmas is about the entry of Eternal God Himself into Time and Space. Christmas allows us to remember the moment when the fate of the world was changed. Without Christmas, we would never have had the opportunity for Salvation. Without Christmas, God the Son would not have been able to offer Himself as a Sacrifice for the sins of humankind and you and I would be eternally damned for our sins with no hope of eternal life.
And I have been thinking about that, because at Christmas, the three Magi, the three wise men, travelled from the East. They were not Jewish. They were not the Chosen People of God. They were foreigners and strangers. And they came to Christ, looking for Him and coming to Him even when He was found in a stable and laid in a manger. And they did not look with their human eyes, and reject what they saw in the dust and the smell around them. Instead, they looked with their spiritual eyes. And with the eyes of their souls they were able to see God Himself laid in that manger.
Their faith was so firm that they followed that star across the land. And they followed it even when logic told them it was useless and silly and impractical. And they followed it even when they arrived, not at a PALACE as they would have expected, but at a poor stable filled with animals and flies and dust and dirt. And they followed it even when they walked inside and spoke with a simple artisan, a carpenter and a very young girl, his wife. And they followed it even when they knelt in the dust and worshipped that child.
And they did not say, look at this child here in this dirty cold place, He is not worthy of the gifts we have brought. Instead, they saw that Child with the eyes of their soul and they gave Him GOLD because He is a King, MYRRH because He is now mortal (myrrh was used to prepare a body for burial) and INCENSE because He is God…
And it occurs to me today to give thanks for the faith of those three wise men, for I should pray to have a faith like that…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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