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Today’s text
Matthew 2:1-2
After Jesus had been born at Bethlehem in Judaea during the reign of King Herod, suddenly some wise men came to Jerusalem from the east asking, 'Where is the infant king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose and have come to do him homage.
Reflection
And now we return, but not too soon.
For most of us return to so-called normal life won’t happen for
a few days. Christmas parties and family celebrations continue, the best of
them with giddy children eager to rip through boxes beneath the tree.
Hearts will remain full. Joy will be found in the joy of
those we most love, and we will feel connected (or we certainly hope) with a
few other souls and realize we actually have missed them.
But we also have missed this awareness, this feeling of
being connected to larger realities from which we receive life, as though we
each are small branches in a great intertwining vine.
Separation from the vine diminishes, while the connections
we may feel in these days stir joy and a welling goodness in our inner being.
We don’t make it happen. We just feel and know, sometimes
with surprising pride, sometimes with tears, our connections with family and
friends. We feel the intertwining of our lives with other lives, … which is to
say with life itself, … which is to say with the great vine of life from which
all grows.
In these connections, we grow larger with life and joy as we
are more connected with the vine, the One vine which is the Source of this
aliveness we are given and of which we always want more.
So we make trips through crowded airports and down wintry
roads. We cook, clean and prepare for hours for those who will descend on our
living rooms, hoping that the sacrament of human connection will awaken our
hearts to love, life and beauty.
We hope, too, to feel connection with that great something
we cannot name, the vine of life, the Source, the Love that wells up within
during this holy season, for it is that connection that makes this season holy
in the first place.
This is the 21st century, and we are far removed
from wise men traveling to find an infant king with only a star to guide them.
Or … are we?
Are they, like us, on a life journey in search of their
souls, hoping to find the one who will awaken their hearts and minds to see and
feel the Life to which we are all connected?
That’s why they followed the star. It’s why we all follow
it.
Pr. David L. Miller
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