Thy Nativity, O Christ our God, hath shined the light of knowledge upon the world; for thereby they that worshipped the stars were instructed by a star to worship Thee, the Sun of Righteousness, and to know Thee, the Dayspring from on high. O Lord, glory be to Thee.
A star instructed the wisemen or so says this ancient prayer. The star, whatever this heavenly sign was, did not speak with words or come with written instructions. (Batteries were not even included!) This gift was not easy for many to grasp, just those prepared by aptitude and training.
For the shepherds the message was obvious: glory to God! God spoke at Christmas with an exclamation point, but He also hid his coming from many who were not wise. Instead, there was something in the heavens that was an outer sign to the wisemen of what God was doing in the world. Whatever this sign was almost surely had a “natural explanation” that told what immediately caused it to shine at just that time in that place.
Ancient peoples avoided several errors we are apt to make. They could predict certain astronomical events, but were not foolish enough to think this meant that they understood what the events meant. Months before Christmas I order certain things and then during these twelve days, those gifts, food items, and drink arrive. One can predict their coming and tell how they came in great detail tracking their journey from warehouse to our house: Saint Annes on No Hill.
When the gift arrives, the recipient (might) study just h0w the gift came and even know that I ordered it. They might thank me for the gift, but this does not tell them why I ordered just this gift, this year, for them. The deeper meaning is hidden from them if all they do is chase the course of the package across Texas.
Indeed the wisemen did not travel to Jerusalem to say: “Lo! We have seen a star in the East, followed it, and here to report on the journey in an academic paper we shall deliver to you.” They did not discuss whatever insight had given them the ability to grasp the message of the start. Having seen and understood, they wished to find the King and worship Him.
This is what a new insight often does: illuminates and makes us wish to act. We read a text and suddenly we “get it.” Often this insight is obvious to others, but somehow has escaped us. As a young man, I was shocked to realize that channel twenty-one, PBS, was also WXXI. I knew enough to get it: Roman numerals, the ideas of twenty-one. Somehow the correlation had escaped me until one day I saw and realized that almost everyone knew what I had seen, yet I was still excited by the “discovery.” I had to tell my family if only to laugh at my blindness!
More rarely I will see something in a book and the idea is (fairly) new. This is exciting and illuminating. The book becomes brighter, easier to understand, as a key had fallen into my hands. This causes me to act: to read and reread the text testing my insight. If it holds, then this too is something I wish to share.
Most wonderful of all, and most infrequent, is the insight that leaves me speechless (!) and compelled to act. Once in Tsarkoye Selo I heard the bells from a nearby church and was compelled to dash to the service. I jumped ditches and ran through fields to reach the place, slowed down, and entered the doors. There I prayed with the people gathered there and worshipped. The meaning of the bells, the call to worship, somehow communicated wordlessly to my spirit. My understanding of many things in Russian literature and spirituality, in myself, were deepened as the bells taught me.
Much greater was the experience of the wisemen. Over time, they had put themselves in a position to hear the proper message of the heavens. One day, who can be sure how, they saw and knew. They followed the star compelled to worship. The outer sign of this star seen in the East drew them forward and they came to worship. The starts instructed them.
May all of us put ourselves in the position of the wisemen where all of nature has a chance to teach us and so come to glorify the Christ!
Christ is born!
Glorify Him.
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