Starlight

When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. (Matthew 2:11-12)

Reflection

There is a stain glass window across the sanctuary from where I sit. I look at it nearly every Sunday, especially this time of year after Christmas.

The window is a modern depiction of two abstract figures, Mary and Joseph, kneeling beside a manger. The tiny hands of a child appear barely over the brown manger’s edge.

A great starburst explodes in the sky above them, and a pronounced angle of light descends directly to the child in the manger. The low angle of the winter sun illumines colors of glistening white and gold through the window and sets the star ablaze.

Everything I need to know … about Jesus and about the Light that illumines all history and every heart … is captured for me in this image.

The window speaks to my heart of a Light who has shined in all history, a Light of life and creation, of mercy and care, of everything that is good and right and beautiful in the world.

It tells me this Light takes a human face that I may see and touch, imagine and know the Love who is the Source of my life and of all that lives in this and every universe.

I look and wait for the light to illumine that star, and I smile every time I see it, more and more as the years pass. It awakens the joy of knowing the Light of Love God is, and opens the eyes of my heart to the Light who shines in every time and place.

Like the Magi, watch for starlight, and joyfully give yourself to the love the Light awakens.

Pr. David L. Miller