Follow the Star

Yesterday, Christians celebrated the feast of the Epiphany. Epiphany is actually a season of the church year, occurring between Christmas and Lent, which focuses on the beginning of Jesus' life and ministry. Churches kick off the season on January 6 by retelling the story of the Three Wise Men who traveled from Persia (probably) seeking a great person whose birth was portended by a extraordinary star. (This is interesting as the Bible's sole endorsement of astrology.) Believing, for who knows what reason, that the infant Magnificence was the Hebrew messiah, the Wise Men set their course for Judea where, after getting some wary assistance from King Herod, they followed the star further to discover that manger in Bethlehem and lay down their costly gifts.

This is the sort of story that skeptics would point to as an improbable fabrication, and in fact it is quite reasonable to see is as a reworking of earlier literary sources. Several passages in the Old Testament state that kings will bow before the annointed one of God, and one even prophesies that they will give him gold and frankincense (perhaps myrrh was a later embellishment). That heavenly signs accompanied the birth of great men was a commonplace of ancient literature. Then there is the question implied above of why these Magi, who would likely have been Zoroastrians, would have sought out the Hebrew messiah. Were exotic religious pilgrimages undertaken casually at the time? Scholars of near eastern history might have something to tell us about this, but once one intially scratches beneath the surface of the story, the Magi's journey seems as strange as it is inspiring.

But the uncertainties the story raises are precisely what makes it inspiring, I think. The Wise Men didn't know where they were going, exactly, and they may not have known who they were looking for. They certainly couldn't have expected who they found (hardly any of Jesus' contemporaries who turned to him as the messiah did). Yet they saw the star and obeyed its summons.

Most of us feel a lure to some higher degree of spiritual life. Perhaps that life takes shape around some established religious practice, or maybe it simply means a more aware, deliberate, empathetic way of living. Quite often, though, people don't know what it is they seek, only that they desire something more that what currently drives them or fills their lives. In too many cases, such uncertainty ends the search for that "something more" before it begins. It shouldn't.

The answers to our inner longings seldom come at once. But they never come without seeking, asking, and testing. When they begin to come, some particular destination may come into view and we may find guides (who sometimes really are the last people you'd expect) who can speed our progress toward it. To begin with, though, it is enough to acknowledge one's spiritual longings and go where they lead. It is enough to follow the star.