Finding My Place Near the Manger

 











"They entered the house and saw the child in the arms of Mary, his mother. Overcome, they kneeled and worshiped him. Then they opened their luggage and presented gifts: gold, frankincense, myrrh."  
Matthew 2:11, The Message

All of us raised in church know this story. How wise men from the East follow the star in search of the One whom the night skies speak of as the new-born king of Israel. Every year as we unpack our Nativity set they take their place beside the shepherds and the assorted animals of the manger, adoring the baby who has come in the fullness of time to redeem mankind. All the things that have been written about who these men were, what the Bethlehem star may have been or that they very likely didn't arrive in David's town until well after the birth of it's most famous son are interesting bits of trivia and back-story but miss the point. These foreigners in their strange garb who lack the Torah and have only the stars to guide them have greater clarity of the significance of what has transpired in Palestine than the Jewish locals. They have come from a great distance, across the desert and down the King's Highway in search of the child they are certain to find whereas for the residents of Jerusalem the birth of another boy in Bethlehem is a decidedly non-event. Who are the real wise men, Matthew seems to be asking: the ones with access to the scrolls of Holy Writ and the accrued knowledge of the scholars or these queer pagans who follow what revelation they have divined in the stars above?

I think of these Magi as they arrive in Bethlehem. They enter the small home of Joseph and Mary and at long last lay eyes on him they have come so far to see. The mere sight of him is awe-inspiring and they bend their knees and lay before him their precious gifts of gold, spice and perfume. Their act of worship is visceral not something well-worn and practiced as my own. But it is not gifts alone that they bring. I suppose they could have sent their gifts via the first century's version of FedEx but worship is not something you can affect that way. To really adore is to engage all that you are. So they brought precious gifts and themselves to the Child acknowledging his lordship even in toddler-dom. They are a reminder to all of us who know the story backwards and forwards that the most precious thing we can bring to Jesus on the celebration of his birthday are our very lives yielded to him as an offering. I think this is what Paul had in mind when he wrote to a group of believers in Rome "...Take your everyday, ordinary life - your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life - and place it before God as an offering" (Romans 12:1, The Message). As crowded as my Nativity set seems to be this means there's room for me there, too.