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| Etched by Keith Hart--from East Pittston UMC |
Each year Epiphany comes and I
think of the word "Aha" usually associated with the awareness of who
Jesus is. But this year I kept thinking
the real "Aha" was realizing that the Magi, the dabblers in magic,
dreamers and star gazers, were not only welcomed to the stable, to Christ, but
invited.
How
did they feel the welcome when so many might have excluded them? Could it be
their understanding of the vastness of the sky, gave them hope for more? Maybe
they knew that life was more than what we see in front of us.
Did
they know then that many people share the same stars at different times? Imagine wishes made star after star, minute
after minute from continent to continent. Wishes and prayers are tossed out to
the evening sky, asking for peace, love, food, housing, healing, forgiveness,
friendship, safety, direction, a future. Maybe they knew because of this
visionary thinking that we are not so different after all.
Paul Simon's War Time Prayers runs
through my mind:
“A mother murmurs in twilight sleep
And draws her babies closer
With hush-a-bies for sleepy eyes
And kisses on the shoulder
To drive away despair
She sends a wartime prayer”
The wisdom of the Magi can lead us to
remember that while much has changed this has not---voices continue to come
together bouncing off the stars, different tongues, yet if we listen, we can
understand--like a Pentecost in the sky!
I
keep looking at the sky in awe as I imagine how the magi were able to look up
and see beyond themselves, beyond a vindictive leader, beyond the skeptics,
beyond their own fear. The saw beyond
these things and then they thought for themselves and took the first step.
Westward leading, still proceeding,
Guide us to thy perfect Light.
http://neumc-email.brtapp.com/viewemail/1661976
