A Star

 

A couple of years ago my wife and I were sitting around a fire with some close friends.  I was kind enough to bring the fuel for the fire, which I had an abundance of, having just remodeled our kitchen countertops. 

“Are those things safe to burn?”

“What could be bad about it?  Fire is fire…burning is burning.” I replied.

“The green flames suggest that maybe it’s toxic.”

“So are cigarettes, but people smoke those all the time.”

“I don’t smoke.”

“Good…then if you hold your breath now…you should be just fine.”

As I was throwing another laminated slab onto the toxic, green fire I noticed a line of moving stars moving across the sky. My first thought was that the green smoke might very well be hallucinogenic, until my wife also notice and asked, “What in the world is that?”

“I have no idea…but I am glad that I am not the only one who is seeing this…do you think we ought to call Area 51?”

“Not yet…let’s see if they take Andrew up into their ship and do any tests on him first.”

The long line of stars continued to pass overhead.  One after the other they moved and for a while I wondered if there was ever an end to the constant stream of new stars.

The four of us stared in astonishment, contemplating what the meaning of the sequential line of stars could be.  Perhaps Jesus was coming back…after all, there was one star when he was born…maybe this was Jesus with a line of angel soldiers coming back…or…it’s just super rich Elon Musk taking over the world with Starlink satellites.  It ended up being the latter.  We learned this when we all pulled out our smartphone and looked it up on the spot. 

This makes me wonder…at the wonder…that the Magi would have experienced in discovering a new star that had suddenly appeared in the sky.  Perhaps even more so, the wonder of finding the Christ child after the long pursuit of following that star. 

What strikes me the most is their reaction upon finding Jesus.  Here we have wise astrologers from the east…pagans…Gentiles…worshipers of idols and false gods, and when they find Jesus, they do something that not even the religious leaders and the teacher of the law would do.  They worship the King.  They worship the King of the Jews…they worship the Christ.

When we come to look for Jesus this Christmas, may our response be the same…to worship the King…to worship the Christ.