Did you ever have a dry day, a day that just doesn’t seem to have much purpose, and that you are just treading water? You’re just not moving forward or backward? Well welcome to my day today.
As I wrote the above paragraph I had a thought hit me. There were three characters in the Christmas Story that has at least one dry day. Who were these three characters? Matthew calls them wisemen from the east.
There are many traditions telling who and what these “wisemen” were. Magi, which can also be deciphered as Eastern Scientists, is one. Kings is another. There is rumor that says each was from a different race of people, Caucasian, Asian and black. Tradition also says that their names were Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar. We only know one thing for sure, that they were wisemen from the east. The Bible doesn’t even specify a number. We also know what they did, they came and worshiped Jesus and they came to give him gifts of gold Frankincense and myrrh.
What about the dry time of the wisemen? Well, we know that they followed a star. They may have followed it for up to two years and they kept going. They believed that this star would lead them to the new born king of the Jews, but one night, the star disappeared.
Think about that for a moment. Possibly two years of your life doing one thing and knowing that where you are going is going to be wonderful and incredible, then one day it all falls apart; you don’t know what to do or where to turn. Your path is gone. Who or what you are following is gone and with it your dreams. Such is the desperation these men must have felt.
I think there comes times in our lives when our star seems to have disappeared. Our faith feels hollow and our dreams don’t matter. We wonder why we have done all that we did when it bore no fruit. We look to God for answers and even the heavens seem silent. We have all had times in our lives when the star disappears.
The question is what do we do when this happens? How do we handle it? Do we go back to our own way? Do we give up? Do we look for another star? Or do we hang on in faith through the pain and the storm of the loss to wait and see what God does?
I am not sure the wisemen kept faith with God in their situation. They went to Herod and asked where the messiah was to be born? And because of their question to Herod all the boys two years old and under in Bethlehem were killed. Had they kept silent and waited this would not have happened. We don’t know exactly how long it took, but we do know that the star reappeared and led them directly to where Jesus lay.
Yes today I am having a dry day. In some ways I cannot see my own star. But I think I will. From this moment forward, wait for my star to come back. I will wait with patience and faith so on Christmas Day I can worship with joy.
