“We three kings of Orient are, bearing gifts we traverse afar. . .”
I hit the motherload from Amazon the other day and was just like a kid at Christmas, tearing through the boxes and bags at warp speed to see what was inside—even though I was the one who had ordered all of it in the first place.
Then I smiled, hoping that each of these gifts would bring joy and delight to the intended recipient, despite knowing that in time, most of them would be relegated to the dark recesses of a closet.
If only there was a gift that would keep on giving….
Ah, but there is! There is One who inspired the giving of gifts in the first place, whose star led the Magi to come from “afar” and to worship the Christ Child as they lay their precious treasures at his feet.
Who are these Magi, the most mysterious of the Christmas story characters? We’re not exactly sure, or precisely where they’re from, or how they knew to follow the star to Jesus. We know simply that they came from the east, many long months travel from their ultimate destination.
Why were they compelled to undertake this great journey? How did they know to bring costly treasures? The Bible simply says that in some way, revealed only to them, they were to look for the one born King of the Jews; that they had seen his star, and they must go to worship him.
So just a little reminder in all the craziness of Christmas, that without Jesus we wouldn’t even have this holiday to celebrate. If these very wise, very wealthy men were willing to go through great hardship and expense to seek him out, could you manage to carve out just a little of your time this season to contemplate and worship the One who was born to die to save us from our sins?
He is the gift that keeps on giving, offering us forgiveness and a changed life.
Wise men still seek him!
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