I've been thinking a lot about the magi for that last few weeks, partly
because I preached on it last Sunday and partly because this is one
thing I think about every time I get a nativity set out. I'm pretty
sure there is an old post about what the Bible really says about the
magi - so this isn't gonna be about that.
This year with all the uncertainties and my hopes for an answer from God
quicker then I feel it is coming...I focused instead on the journey the
magi took.
I have always been really impressed by the magi for one reason they
without giving second thought had faith in the star and themselves to
follow it...they trusted that God was going to take them on an important
journey and left - leaving for a several year journey that would be
dangerous and at the end take them home on a different path, perhaps a
longer path.
Trusting in the journey and giving up to God our lives is really hard -
especially for people who want to know what is going on. It takes a lot
for us to put our trust in the divine and to ultimately follow without
confirmation - and for the magi this journey was several years!
God doesn't just appear to us and give us all the answers - and for
those who are seeking for the first time a Creator, there isn't instant
gratification. But instead, by trusting our own intuition which tells
us that indeed there is something greater in this world, a power that we
would like to know or something beyond ourselves, we can be lead on a
journey. Like the journey the magi's took. A journey which could lead
you to Christ.
For me, an already believer, I need to remind myself that when I trust
God and go along the path that my creator is lighting for me - I'm on
God's time, not my time. It might take a longer then I'd like for God's
plan to be revealed to me and there are plenty of times along this path
that I would like to leave it for my own. But if I persist by putting
my trust in the Divine power, I know that the God's plan will be
revealed and as the magi came to stand at the foot of the savior - I too
will have my epiphany moment. I just must trust and believe.
Some theologians believe that you don't actually have to have faith to
begin going to church or becoming a Christian - for if you begin by
doing all the things that a "good" Christian does: praying, reading the
Bible, studying, worshiping that eventually these will lead you into
belief, into an epiphany or ay-ha moment when you realize that indeed
God's presence is all around us.
Let us all challenge ourselves this year - to live into our faith
putting trust not in the moment now but in the path that will lead us to
the moment when God's self is revealed - perhaps for the first time or
perhaps once again!
