Star of Wonder

Today the Church celebrates the Feast of the Epiphany, where we commemorate the visit of the Magi to the Christ child. The obvious reminder of the day’s celebrations is the song “We Three Kings” which most likely you heard at Church this morning.

I have to admit it’s not one of my favorites. It was originally written for a Christmas Pageant in 1857. Originally intended for children, the simple and catchy refrain about the infamous star will stay in your head all day to be sure. Maybe, that’s not a bad thing!

The story of the Epiphany speaks to every single one of us who seeks to grow in relationship with God. We are all familiar with the story from Scripture. The wise men have followed the Christmas star “from its rising” and it led them from the orient to the Holy Land. First they stop in Jerusalem to seek directions from King Herod. When the king learns that they are seeking “the newborn king of the Jews” he becomes angry, and asks the Magi to return after they have found him so that he too can go and pay Jesus homage. Of course, Herod has no intention of actually paying homage to Jesus, rather he wants to have him killed. So the Magi, after they have found Jesus, are warned in a dream to avoid Herod and so they “return by another route.”

The wise men are led to Jesus by the star: a star so important that it merits its very own song! Yet after they find him, we don’t hear about that star anymore. What is our star? What have we followed that led us to meet Jesus? Anyone of us could look back over the course of our lives and find countless people, situations, and circumstances that have come into our lives and gone again. Upon their departure we were hurt and angry: could it be that they were a star? We have all faced times of tragedy and asked ourselves why God would allow them to happen. Could it be that they were a star?

When we are able to discover Jesus hidden in the pain and suffering of life in the real world things change. We too return “by a different route.” No one can encounter Jesus and not return by a different path then the one they took to find him. We go through the hurts and struggles of life, we seek to find Jesus, and then we depart by a route that is illuminated by faith and hope. This journey is not one that happens once a year at Christmas: it happens every day of our lives.

So how do we seek Jesus? The same way the Magi did. They stepped out on faith and left the comforts of their homeland to journey across the known world in pursuit of the promise they found in the prophecies. They stopped – with pure hearts- to seek directions. Each step of their journey was made in good faith, and they were flexible enough to “roll with the punches”. When we are able to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God, and our primary concern is simply to keep doing the next right thing; challenges become stars, and the journey of life becomes illuminated by faith and hope.

“O Star of Wonder, Star of Night,

Star with Royal Beauty bright,

Westward leading, still proceeding,

Guide us to Thy perfect Light.”