The wise men followed a star—cold, distant, perfect light pointing the way. But what they found in Bethlehem was something else entirely: not starlight but "the opposite of a star"—the baby Jesus.
In this Christmas meditation, Kevin D. Williamson ties together ancient Greek mythology, residual paganism, his three-year-old's questions about Santa's chimney logistics—and the terror what the Magi's gifts foretold:
Stipulate a real mother, a real father, and a real child. Stipulate that none of these people is insane. Mary and Joseph already have an idea of the divine nature of their son, but here come the Magi with something new to share with them: The first thing they need to know about their child, snuggled up and nursing contentedly and the most beautiful thing they have ever seen in this world, is that He is going to die.
The result is a profound exploration of Christianity's central paradox: a God who is both unreachably distant and intimately, vulnerably present. "A child: No perfect light. No burning bush. No miracles and resurrections—that is for later," Williamson writes. "Here, in the little bit of light surrounded by all that darkness: a newborn child."
Williamson reminds us that the wise men traveled far beyond the borders of prudence and wisdom "into the uncharted and dangerous territory of the thing itself, reality beyond symbolism or exegesis or interpretation." And what they found wasn't a riddle or a symbol—but Emmanuel. God with us. A baby who needed to be held.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Keep a civil tongue.