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As we start to come out of the Christmas season, we take down the decorations, remove the shiny things that distract our eyes, withdraw the cheap jingling bells that irritate our ears and delete Wham’s Last Christmas off our playlist, we are given an opportunity to witness Jesus in the simplicity of life. If we look to Elijah in 1 Kings 19: 11-12, we see that Elijah didn’t encounter God in the business but in the sheer silence. The Epiphany is a time where the wise found their Christ their king, without a crown or fine clothes, without the bells and whistles but in swaddling clothes. If you did not know the story and the Magi were to tell it to you, would you believe them?
During this time, we remember the journey the Three Wise Magi encountered. When we go for a drive, we are often dependent on the GPS navigation, and even though it is set we still question if it is still talking in the right direction. We can see the direction that we are going in and know that it is opposite to the displacement, we sometimes can see the green signs telling us the suburbs we are heading towards, and notice our destination is no longer displayed. These Wise Magi would be seeing sign after sign that they are going in the wrong direction but must persist. What great anxiety and frustration they must have gone through, as they see themselves going away from the palaces in search for a king and seeing a path leading away from royalty. When they reach their destination, they see a baby in an animal feeder box; it would be interesting to know if they thought they were in the wrong pace. If you ever became anxious from coming overdressed to a party imagine what these men would have felt in fine clothes with gold, frankincense and myrrh amongst the animals.
When we search to find Jesus, what exactly are we looking for? And how do we prepare? Our journey is filled with pressures trying to convince us that we are going the wrong way. The Magi have to wrestle with the orders of the king, in which they know that they will have to go into hiding, and lose favour with their ruler. On our journey, we will find obstacles in our way pulling us away from God but are we prepared to go the distance?
The Magi went in search for Jesus, knowing that their lives would change, they went to bear witness to the Messiah, and did this knowing the consequence. Like the Magi when we walk this journey, we will do this with purpose, conviction and with fortitude even though we know that things will pull us in different directions, it will bring anxiety and frustration, embarrassment and humiliation and even enemies.
As we begin this new year, this new journey, this new adventure, rather than look for Jesus in the glitter and glamour of life, search in the direction that He is leading you. The greatest life we can live is not unbelievable because we fill it with lies but unbelievable because God leads to things that people could not believe.
