Happy Little Christmas

 Today is the 12th day, or the Feast of the Three Kings.  When the magi arrive and bring thier gifts to Jesus.  The magi, rulers from foreign lands, risk thier lives to come and honor the Ruler of the world.  This has always been one of my favorite passages in our collective story. 
When I was little, I would always look for the star that the magi followed.  I would stare out my window on Christmas Eve and wait for one star that seemed different, brighter and new.  One star always spoke to me, always shone a little more vibrantly and held my attention.  Even when I studied Astonomy in college and learned more about stars, I could not lose the idea that those stars were the ones that signified the presence of  Jesus in our world.  The assumption is that for the magi, studying stars was a way of life.  That this was inherent to thier religious beliefs so beyond the phophetic statements in the oracles of Numbers (24:17) they were being spoken to through a way that they could understand.  God meeting them where they were, if you will.  So here is Christ, coming to free the people of Isreal and speaking to rulers of other nations and beliefs.  Why is this important?  Because, the very first thing that God, in being present to us through this baby showed, was his accessability to all people.  Rulers were not generally nice guys, and were assumed to be all powerful or godly, (thus Herod’s obsession with killing the new king…someone was here that could challenge his authority.)  But God chose these, (we assume) three (and thier entourages!) to speak to and in doing so, included the rest of us in the moment of our actual freedom.  I am sure some would argue that freedom happened at the Crucifixion or the Resurrection but I believe it happened at the moment when Hope and Love were embodied in the person of Jesus.  That yes, God loved the world but God also trusted the world with his son.  The story doesn’t begin here, it began centuries before but here it becomes available to everyone.  Everyone can access the freedom.  The magi left by alternate route because an angel told them in a dream that they were in danger.  I always wonder what the journey home was like.  They had just met God Incarnate.  Was this the beginning of “going out to all nations?”  Laying the seeds by telling of what they had just witnessed?I will stop here and consider what gift I can bring the new babe that has taken up residence in my mind and heart.  I will wait and listen and like the magi, I will follow his alternate route.