The story of the three wise men/kings is the story of our coming to God. The Magi make a long and treacherous journey, for which intense preparations would have been needed. They embarked on a pilgrimage, a quest, leaving their native land and journeying perhaps farther than any of them had ever traveled before. They saddled up their camels, loaded them with precious gifts, made elaborate navigational calculations, and set forth into the unknown.
So why did the wise men have to go and seek the holy child – and get Herod all riled up in the process? Why didn’t they just abide in their own fields, doing whatever it would have been that wise men were wont to do, and let God come and find them where they were? The call to pilgrimage speaks to us, shouts to us, across the ages. I like to think of the wise men as too excited to wait, unwilling just to sit there, twiddling their thumbs, plodding along with business as usual, while that fiery sign blazed across the sky. Here at St. Paul’s, I’ve loved our Advent procession of our three wise men toward the altar, the visible, tangible, sense of their drawing ever closer to the child sleeping in their manger, of their being willing, nay eager, to meet God more than halfway.
The story of the wise men sends us forth on a journey. I think God thinks journeys are good for us. Sure, God can come and find us wherever we are, but there is something in the very seeking that is beneficial, something in travel that is itself transformative. How can we journey closer toward God in this Advent season?
—Claudia Mills
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