The Wise Men: Hope

What if what they said was true? The star that appeared, announcing something new and world-changing? The prophecy that sent the seekers, not to a palace or the centers of power, but to a village of powerless people scrabbling out a meager living day to day?

What if that child of an ordinary carpenter and his young wife would really one day be a king? Whose mere newborn presence was such a threat to the powers that be that God had to warn the these wise men to return home by another route?

What did they talk about on their way back home? About the journey that may have started out as an adventure, a curiosity, an intellectual pursuit, and that turned into wonder and worship?

Would they ever know what became of the child? Would they live long enough in their distant land to hear about the man, the Messiah, who healed the sick and raised the dead, who walked on water and calmed the storm? Who was crucified and died, yet walked out of his own tomb?

Probably not. So what did they take home with them on that long journey, and carry with them through their remaining years? Hope. Not just a vague hope that what the star signified and what the prophet said was true. But a hope born out of all they’d seen when they’d followed where the star led them. Hope that comes from knowing there’s a God who keeps his promises. Who shows up. Who invites not just the powerful and privileged, but the ordinary and the outsider to come and see. To worship and wonder. To be part of his story and to spread that hope in their own corner of the world.