Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 2 verses 1-2, and 9-12.
After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”
9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.
The Magi had lost site of their star. For some reason, unbeknownst to them or to us, the star which they had seen at its first rising was lost to them.
And now they were in the dark.
Or perhaps they were too much in the light. It’s hard to see the stars in the City at night. Perhaps that was their problem, they were looking for the newborn King in the City of Jerusalem, while he was born out in the country, in the little village of Bethlehem. In any case, they had lost their star. And a long, long way from home, they didn’t know where to go next.
So they turned in to ask for direction. (Proof, a friend of man says, that at least one of them was a woman, because if it had been all men they would still be out their wondering around in the desert, too proud to stop and ask for help.)
And then the spiritual guides gave them direction, coming from the Scriptures:
“‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.’”
And so, they set out again, Westward still just a short distance more, towards Bethlehem only 7 miles away.
“And the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them . . .”
Some lessons from this story: We all at times get lost, both literally and spiritually. We all at some point need help finding our way again, because we’ve lost our star. In those times, we need to stop and ask for help. Sometimes the answers really are right there in the Bible, and sort of leap off the page when we find them. And sometimes, we’re a whole lot closer to what we’re looking for than we think or fear, if we will dare to just keep going and searching . . .
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