On the Ninth Day

     I don't know how many of you were as nit-picky as I was, but you may understand how, as a child, I was very concerned about the fact that everyone thought there were three wisemen when such a fact is not explicitly stated in Scripture. I even went to the extent of changing the words in the carols when I sang them. It was, "We many Kings," or, in The First Noel, "And by the light of that same star, many wisemen came from country far." You get the picture.
    I was also very particular about when the wisemen saw Jesus. It was not as a baby in a manger, but as a toddler in a house. When we used to set out nativity scenes, we wouldn't set out the wisemen, because they weren't supposed to be there yet.
 
      We all have our own pet views on things, especially in cases like this where all the facts are not given. We don't have any reason to believe that the men were kings, this deduction is made because they could afford rich gifts. There could have been as many as thirty or as few as two, but because there were three gifts, it has become tradition to think there were three magi. One thing we can all agree on, however, such an occurrence was an act of God, and foretelling of the importance of this child. Even king Herod feared this coming of wisemen, as a pointed threat to his kingship. There is no doubt that God proclaimed this child to be the Messiah, even as inconsequential as the circumstances of His birth appeared.

    There is a car repair shop which we often drive by which is quite obviously Christian. At Christmas they have a sign up which says, "Christ is Born, Wisemen still seek him."  Get it? I love such ecellent plays on words....but anyhow, it struck me recently how much of a true picture that actually was. Most people on the earth, completely missed the coming of Christ; the religious leaders who ought to have known, the kings, the rulers, the great men of that time. All of them didn't notice a thing, It was pagan, seers, who really shouldn't have been expected to know, who traveled for months to find the "king of the Jews."  But this showed them to be the real wisemen of the earth. They were the one's who actually understood God's message and welcomed it. They followed a star into unknown lands and gave their richest possessions to a carpenter's baby. They alone, saw with the eyes of faith rather than the blind man's eyes of human reason and worshiped the Son of God.

  Join with me now, good readers, and hear the beautiful "Golden Carol of The Wisemen."   It may be fictitious but it is applicable to each of us. When we see the light, let us not be like the fools who ignored it and lost their lives, but let us give up our comfort and luxury, and follow that star to the world's end if necessary, that we may gain immeasurable life.

   If so, we can joyfully say with the wisemen,