Wise Men & Shepherds
We know the story of the three magi or wise men well. We have heard it time and again, about how they saw the star in the East that told them that the King of the Jews had been born. The traveled far to find this king and they wished to honor Him. What is interesting is that the Greek word here is proskunh/sai, which is usually reserved for reverence given to spiritual beings such as gods.
We also know the story of the shepherds as they lay watching their sheep at night, they also came into Bethlehem to see the new born baby.
Season of Seeking
Truly the Advent Season is a season of seeking the wise men and shepherds sought to find the child born in a manger, they sought him so that they might worship, and adore him. They sought him so that they might pay him honor.
We all Seek Jesus
But wise men and shepherds are not the only one’s who seek Jesus. In fact all the world is seeking the child in the manger, they may never say that they are looking for Jesus but they are seeking; seeking to fill an emptiness inside their hearts, seeking to find that which is missing.
The problem
The problem is that too many times people misunderstand what they are actually doing, and so the things that they do seem oddly out of place for one who is seeking the Son of God.
Success
There are those who think that worldly success will fill that void, and calm the ache in their lives, so they spend hours after hours pushing their way to the top, secretly hoping that with each step up they will find the peace and the completion that they desire, but with each step comes another wave of despair with the realization that what they seek is not there, and so they look up to the next level only to repeat the cycle.
Material Things
Others believe that their wholeness for their lives comes in the acquiring of possessions, so their lives are spent amassing fortunes that they buy beautiful homes, and luxurious cars, and all of the things that any one person could ever desire. Only to find that with each purchase, the ache is still there, and that with every new thing comes a deeper sense of grief in secretly knowing that that last happiness must truly come with the next purchase, or the next million.
Norman Rockefeller, oil tycoon-billionaire, was once asked how much money would it take to make him truly happy, his response, “A little more than I have right now.” One of the richest men who ever walked the planet did not find happiness in all the money that he had earned for himself, and so he sought just a little more in the hopes that then he would find happiness.
Physical Relationships
Still others, seeking joy and peace for their lives, have all but given up on that search, time and time again they have only found pain and hurt in their lives, and in response they have retreated to the dark places of life, some have sought only to numb the pain with drugs or alcohol, hoping that they will not feel the pain or that they could forget what they were searching for. Others look to the arms of another, hoping then the hurting might be stopped, only to find more dejection, from there they move to another and another. Finding only emptiness at each stop.
There are many ways the we seek the peace that we know is out there, but many of those ways lead only to more hurt, more pain, and more heartache and misery. Yet we search still, hoping that with each attempt we will find what we seek.
There is hope
But there is hope, there is indeed a reason to be seeking, and searching for that peace, that completion, and the love that you desire, but know this, we will never find it by using our own understanding, we won’t find it by searching the things of man.
A return to the Wise-men and Shepherds
Let’s return to the story of the wise-men and shepherds, and even to that of Herod for a minute. They each were seeking, the child Jesus for their own reasons whether it be for good or bad they were looking for the baby in the manger, but they did not start their journey on their own accord, they did not begin their quest because one day they had an idea that salvation would come in the form of a child in a barn. Instead, God was calling out to each of them, the wise-men through a star in the sky, the shepherds through the Angel of the Lord, those who found the manger found it not because they sought salvation but because salvation sought them. They did not seek the child Jesus on their own instead the God was seeking and calling them.
God has not stopped seeking his people
God has not stopped seeking people to come and worship His Son, and it is that seeking that we feel in our bones, it is His seeking that drives us from day to day.
The Horse Whisperer
In, The Horse Whisperer, Tom Booker, has a gift when it comes to what he calls "gentling" horses. In one scene, a traumatized horse, frightened by a ringing cell phone, gallops off into the far end of a large pasture. Booker walks into the pasture and sits down, where he waits for what appears to be hours. Drawn by curiosity the horse inches closer and closer finally allowing itself be touched by the "whisperer" who leads it back to the safety of its stall.
At first glance it would seem that the horse was seeking out the man in the pasture, but if we look we can see that it was the horse that was being sought out. It was the horse that was being called. The horse did not seek him out on its own, the horse found him because in seeking the horse he put himself in a place to be found.
God is seeking His people
Truly I tell you that God is seeking those who are lost, those who are hurting, he is seeking all of his Children, he does not simply call from the fence line of the pasture that is our life, instead in his seeking he places himself in a place where he might be found. 2000 years ago that was the manger with his infant Son. Today, he places himself in our lives in many ways, but in each instance he comes into our lives seeking us so that we might find him.
We need to be seeking too.
If we are going to be imitators of Christ, then we too need to follow his example, and place ourselves in the lives of those who are seeking so that they might find the child in the manger, and the Savior on the Cross.
