December 21: Micah 5:2-4 / Matthew 2:1-6

It’s an interesting exercise to study a Bible passage that I’ve known since childhood. Unsurprisingly, I found my perspective has changed over the last 60 years. Questions that I would have asked then would have been about logistics: How far did the magi walk (possibly as far as 1000 miles) and how long did it take them (maybe as long as a year)? It was a remarkable endeavor given that their only clue that the journey would lead them to Jesus was a 700-year-old prophecy.  I wondered whether I would be able to make that kind of commitment.  But then I started to compare my own journey to theirs and realized it has challenges of its own.

I, at least, have been blessed with far more clues: the life of Jesus laid out in the New Testament is a huge advantage, but the path it lays out is crowded and the other travelers, who believe they are faithfully following the same map, often make choices that are far different than mine.  At a minimum it’s distracting; at its worst, it’s discouraging. 

The magi had a big advantage over my own journey: they had a clearly defined destination – Bethlehem Ephrathah. It was a long hard road and I expect that Christ had to give them a tug from time to time, but they knew when they had gone far enough. My destination is less clear and “far enough” always seems a little beyond my reach. But Christ keeps tugging me too and I pray for perseverance and that someday I will know when I’ve gone far enough too.

 

Chaplain John Hauser
Door County Medical Center – Sturgeon Bay