1-3-19 - Getting There

(You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.)

Until you’re there, you’re not. This is a truth of journeying I relearn every time I am late, impeded by speed limits, traffic lights, other drivers. I want to be through the miles, onto the next leg of the route, arriving – but I can only be where I am at each moment. Until you’re there, you’re not.

The sages who had come so many miles in search of the new king whose star they’d seen rising in their night skies had reasons for wanting to get there. They had invested a great deal in making this trip, in trusting the stellar guidance as they read it. Maybe people at home had called theirs a fool’s errand; they might have read the stars wrong. This Herod fellow certainly hadn’t known anything about a new king; he just sent them off toward Bethlehem. They didn't even know where "there" was, but until they were there, they weren’t.

But they had that star as a beacon: “...they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy.”

Imagine what these star-followers felt when the guidance held true! Real men or mythic figures – or both – these sages were overwhelmed with joy when they were led to a simple house. And if they were surprised to find there an ordinary young family, we see no indication in their actions: 

“On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.”

What a way to greet a king, even one who didn't t look like one: in a house, not a palace; attended only by his mother. Our wise travelers were unfazed. They knew they had arrived where they needed to be. They had come with three goals – they wanted to see, they wanted to honor, they wanted to gift. And when they had done what they came to do, they went home, guided by the wisdom that had brought them to Bethlehem, to be ready for the next adventure.

Maybe we can find in their goals a guide to our devotion:

To want to see Jesus. Make that a prayer; ask the Spirit to expand your faith vision to see Jesus wherever he might be in your life this week, in prayer, in worship, in his word, in the poor, in other people…
To want to honor Jesus. Offer Him praises, adoration in your heart, with your voice, in your actions…
To give him precious gifts. What that is precious to you do you want to offer Jesus? Your time? Energy? Relationships? Maybe ask what he would like you to give… you might be surprised at the answer.

This journey of seeing, honoring, giving is one we make over and over again, arriving “there” only to leave again. Each time we arrive we are strengthened for the next trip, which might be in five minutes, or five weeks, and on each journey we see the sights somewhat differently.

Until we’re there, we’re not.

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