You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
Until you’re there, you’re not. This is a truth I relearn every time I take a long journey. 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 this trip, trusting the stellar guidance as they read it. Maybe people at home had called theirs a fools’ errand; maybe they’d 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. 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 is precious to you that 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 where Jesus is 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.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
They knew their stars, these wise men, magi of scripture and legend, astrologers or astronomers from east of Judea (how far east? Everything’s relative…). They knew they had observed a new star in the night sky, and they knew how to interpret what they saw. According to their calculations, this one indicated a new king for the Jewish people – and this discernment induced them to leave home, undertake a lengthy journey of uncertain destination, find this new monarch and offer honor. Were they cultivating an alliance with a powerful new figure, or simply paying their respects?
In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.”
Their predictions got them to the right region, if not the precise location where this new king could be found. And so, logically, they began their search in Jerusalem at the court of the current king, Herod. Bad idea – but that’s how great stories come about. More on that later in the week…
Today, let’s rest with these travelers. I am touched by their priorities, their attention to the movement of the heavens, their conviction that they’d read the stars correctly, their willingness to put aside their daily lives and duties to travel to a foreign land and pay homage to a monarch they’d only learned about through astrological charts and observation. They are models for us of faith in action, even amid our global crises that just keep coming.
Is there a star you are chasing? Another way to ask that is:
Have you discerned a movement of God in your life or in the world around you?
Has it included a call to action for you?
Have you explored this with wise people in your life?
Have you been able to act on your discernment?
Have you been part of someone else’s discernment, been a “wise one” for another?
What divine action do you sense around you at this point in your life, on the cusp of a new year? This is often a time when we pay special attention to new movements in the greater arc of our lives, as the magi scanned the heavens for changes in the stars.
We have an advantage over those eastern sages – we already know the king they were seeking, or at the very least, we’ve been introduced. We don’t need to scan the heavens – we need only seek the light of Christ in and around us, and move toward that. That Star will give us all the direction we need.
© Kate Heichler, 2024. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
