It started with the star. We all knew what a new star represented, according to tradition. It meant a new king had been born. So we set off to look for him, to pay homage.
Looking back, maybe it was a mistake to go to Herod. He was already king of that land, of course he wasn’t going to like hearing about a new king. But we were in a strange land. And where should we start the search for a king but the palace?
That wasn’t where we found him, though. The child we sought was in a small place, a village of shepherds and farmers and carpenters, not a royal hall. A long way from the opulent splendour we were used to. Our gifts- gold, frankincense, myrrh, seemed out of place amid the mud and straw. What kind of home was this for a king?
It got worse, though. I had a dream, a warning. Herod had told us to go back to him once we had found the king, so that he could go himself to worship. I’d had a bad feeling about that at the time, but we were guests, and it would have been rude to refuse. Now though- the dream was enough to warn us to find a different way home. The child and his family were warned too. They set off to seek safety elsewhere, the baby king a refugee fleeing in the night; hiding from King Herod as his ancestor David hid from King Saul. It was a night I will never forget.
The story of the wise men (or magi, or kings) comes from Matthew chapter 2.
Again, I wrote about the wise men last year so won't repeat myself, except as a reminder that refugees have been around long before any of the current world crises, and the situation is only likely to get worse as climate change escalates and the effects of rising sea levels, droughts and food shortages, extreme weather events and the destabilising effects of these events become more noticeable. Maybe this is a good time to think about our attitudes to those who have been forced to leave their homes to find safety and a future for their families.
If you want a different take on this bit of the Christmas story, can I recommend T.S. Elliot's 'Journey of the Magi'? Not that I claim to fully understand it, but it has some lovely evocative and thought provoking writing.
