Lesson One from the Wise Men: Have Faith and Get Excited

“…the star appeared again, the same star they had seen in the eastern skies. It led them on until it hovered over the place of the child. They could hardly contain themselves: They were in the right place! They had arrived at the right time! They entered the house and saw the child in the arms of Mary, his mother. Overcame, they kneeled and worshipped him.”

 I am not massive on gift-giving myself, but Christmas and gift giving is massive for my family.  Gift giving is one of my dad's main love languages and we got a lot of love at Christmas. My siblings and I were very spoilt. We had to write a list every year - at the end of November dad would start pestering us for our lists. He would actually get angry if we were late in giving him our lists. When I moved out of home one of my best friends moved in to my room and he even asked her to write a list!

He was really precise about it as well - making sure we all had the same number of gifts, even the same number of big gifts and small gifts. And we got big gifts too! Dressing tables, bikes, one year we looked out the window and Santa had left us a massive trampoline. This is something that has continued with my kids – it is handy because we don’t get them much knowing that my parents will spoil them rotten just like they spoilt us.

When I was about 10 my parents had the wall separating the dining room and the living room removed to make it one big space. This meant that when I was little, on Christmas morning, the rule in my family was we weren't allowed to go into the lounge until everyone was up, dressed and had breakfast. We weren't even allowed to open the door to the lounge to sneak a peek at what Santa had left us and if we did we were in trouble. You imagine being 5 years old and knowing that Santa has just left a pile of presents on the other side of the door and you can’t even look at them – it was a mixture of joy and torture – and it was so fun!

I wish I could feel like that more often. I am not satisfied with saying that I am grown up now - so I will never feel that way again, because there have been times as an adult when I have felt that way. Leading up to my wedding for example, coming back home from the UK, having my babies -I had that same Christmas morning feeling of excitement and anticipation for all of these events in my life.

This is what draws me to the Wise Men in the Christmas story.

Herod heard that the Wise Men were in town looking for the new-born King of the Jews. So he gathers a group of priests and religious scholars to ask them where the king will be born. The scene in my mind is of a frightened, paranoid Herod telling this group of scholars about the foreigners in town looking for a new king. Feeling more of an allegiance to Herod than to God at this point, they tell him where the king will be born.

And then they do nothing.

 

They do not quickly pack their bags to join the Wise Men on the journey. There is no excitement, no nervous anticipation that this might just be the one they have been waiting for. When I read this I get the impression that their response is kind of, “yeah right, we’ll see”.

 

This is in stark contrast to the Wise Men. They see the star. They leave their homes, their comfort zone. They go on a journey to find a King and even when they find that king in a humble stable, the Bible says that ‘They could hardly contain themselves’ and they kneel to worship him.

‘They could hardly contain themselves.’ That is how I felt on Christmas morning as a child, and I wish I could feel that way more often now.

 Obviously we cannot feel that way all the time. It would be weird to have a sense of expectation and anticipation throughout the year. But what are we missing out on when we do not feel that way at all, or act on that feeling?

I am always trying to avoid disappointment. If you are familiar with my blogs already, then you will know that my husband and I even created a word for it – Grinching, which basically means to manage your expectations in order to avoid disappointment.

Even though my husband and I created this term there are times when grinching is not good. Where instead of protecting ourselves from disappointment and being cynical it is better to step out of our comfort zones, like the Wise Men, and have more of an expectation that something great is about to happen.

This can be applied to so many areas of life. For example, when someone you know is really trying to change their lives for the better, or trying to loose weight, or break a bad habit. It can even be appiled to faith.

I do not always act like one of the Wise Men when it comes to faith.  I am sometimes more like one of the religious scholars. I know a lot about God. I went to Bible College after all! But I do not always live out, or get remotely excited about what I know. It is safer to just wait and see what happens.

The trouble with faith is that it makes a fool out of you. It is cooler to be cynical.

I love a good dose of cynicism. It is the reason I love British comedy. There is less cheese and it has a cutting edge to it. It is even easy to be cynical at Christmas. When you are cynical and you have no expectations and you don’t take risks - you don’t get made a fool of and you are not disappointed. Hope and faith, and anticipation can make you appear very foolish. Cynicism may be cool, but it is not always fun, and you do not grow.

 The Wise Men went looking for a king and found a baby in a stable.  But they did not feel foolish. ‘They could not contain themselves.’ By all accounts, this was the greatest day of their lives.

This is the first lesson that the Wise Men taught me; to get excited about the things that are worth getting excited about.  Because ultimately I am on a journey and I trust that, like the Wise Men, there is something wonderful waiting for me at the end.