Sunday, January 4, 2015
Matthew 2:1-12
Two summers ago, I spent some time visiting friends in Kincardine. I spent a great deal of time on the shore of Lake Huron, looking out into the endless horizon stretching towards the United States. Except for the hazy shape of Bruce Nuclear Generating Station, there was nothing else on the shoreline, and I felt lonely, as though I stood at the ends of the earth. I can only imagine the wise men feeling something similar as they started out from their eastern home. Not only was theirs a journey of an unknown length, but their only guide was a star – at best, they were following a hunch.
The wise men strike me as dreamers. Matthew gives no account that they read any prophecies to give reason for this journey, only that they observed a star in the east, and set out. They are great wanderers it would seem, those who dream beyond the impossibility of what can be seen. It is the same when I looked across Lake Huron and dreamed sailing out beyond the horizon. It is a crazy faith, built on a “hunch.” How can they know what they will find?
But the key is not in finding something. When we see the wise men’s joy, it is not joy at finding the Christ child. Their joy comes from seeing the star stop above Bethlehem. In that moment, their wild and impossible dream is validated. They are overwhelmed with joy because they trusted in a hunch and it worked.
In that moment, they understand something greater at work, that the presence of God guides our way in our dreams and our journeys through life. The plan is rarely clear; rather, the road usually disappears into the horizon. But God gives us hunches and gut feelings to help push us out the door. But then it requires a measure of crazy to just go.
- Josh Zentner-Barrett
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