Episode Transcript
Matthew 2:9–12
After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.
CONSIDER THIS
Does anyone else find it somewhat strange that most of us, when we’re in our car and traveling to unknown destinations, don’t really know how to get where we’re going? We simply put the address in whatever navigational system we are using, put the car in drive, and head out on the open road. Usually, these maps do their job. They recognize shortcuts, know when there are hazards ahead, and even alert us to delays that are in our path. I love it when these maps work; not so much when they don’t.
Recently, my wife and I were going to attend the wedding of some family friends and flew into an airport and rented a car. Not knowing exactly where the venue was but having the address, we put the venue location into the map app, and away we went. About two hours into the trip, we pulled over to grab some lunch, and that’s when it happened—after we put the car in park, the normally calm voice on the GPS system somehow lost our location. So, much to our surprise, it just began giving a myriad of instructions.
“Turn right.” “Turn left.” “Turn left.” “Turn right.” “Turn right.” “Turn right.” Honest to goodness, it was a nonstop tirade of commands with limited breaths in between.
My wife and I just looked at each other and laughed until we cried. I’m not sure how the GPS system lost our location, nor do I know why it flipped out and started throwing every direction that was loaded into its directional database at us, but it was clearly going to do whatever it had to do to get us back on the path we were supposed to go.
You know, God has a pretty good track record of doing the same.
Go back to the exodus story. How did God lead his people? “By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light so that they could travel by day or night” (13:21). I love that, during the day, it was a cloud, but at night—when traveling in uncertain places can be the scariest, when you can’t see what’s waiting around every corner—it was light that guided the steps of his people. It’s here, within the story of the Magi, that God would do it again.
Having left Herod and knowing the direction they were to head (Bethlehem, but not knowing the address), God would send a star—literally, a light—to lead the way. It would not just lead the way; it would stop over the house where Jesus was.
Can you imagine? No wonder “they were overjoyed” (Matt. 2:10). What happened next is so beautiful: “On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him” (v. 11a). They literally fell on their faces before the Lord.
Did you know in the Gospels there are thirteen instances of a person or persons taking a position of bowing, falling on their faces at the feet of Jesus? The very first instance is right here—a group of Gentiles who traveled at great cost and expense arrived at their destination, and with childlike wonder, their knees buckled, and they fell on their faces in worship and adoration before Jesus.
Then there were the gifts. Gold is a gift you would give a king. Frankincense is an incense often used for worship in the temple; it could be considered a priestly gift. Myrrh is a perfume often used to anoint dead bodies placed in a tomb. I suppose there is a reason they were called “wise” men.
What follows the story is a lot of “we don’t know.” They received a dream to stay away from Herod, so that’s exactly what they did. They returned to their home via a different route, but I strongly suspect they did not return home as they left it. They returned changed because they had encountered wonder after wonder in their pursuit of Jesus.
Their journey was not a wasted one; it led them to the King of kings.
Your journey is not wasted, my friend. May that same wonder find you today, wherever you are in your story.
THE PRAYER
God of wonder, just as a GPS guides our earthly journey, we thank you for being our Divine Navigator, leading us on the path of righteousness. With gratitude, we trust in your leading, God, knowing that your way is the right way. May we follow as you lead. Amen.
THE QUESTIONS
Can you think of a time in your life that your journey led to something beautiful and unexpected? How did you find Jesus? Reflect on that experience. What did it mean then, and what does it mean to you today?