Devotional 1-6-13

Matthew 2:1-12

Three men,
Old in wisdom,
Wise in years,
Stood together.
They studied the stars,
The arrangement of the planets,
Comets that shot across the sky.

None were married.
None had families.
"Knowledge was their love.
They gathered together each day,
In a room full of manuscripts and scrolls.
It had a musty, old smell
That hung in their clothes,
Trapped in the folds of the silk in their robes.

They were hungry,
To know more
To understand more
To fill themselves to completeness,
With all that they could discover.

The men saw a star in the East.
It was unprecedented,
And their souls longed to understand it.
They dug through the prophecy,
Hunting with unquenchable thirst,
For the answers to their questions.
They had to KNOW.

A king was to be born.
A great king of the Jews,
And this was a sign of it.
A star, shining brighter than any before.
It would lead them to what they desperately needed.

Together, they traveled, across desert,
Riding camels,
Carrying gifts.
They followed the star,
Past an angry king
Full of deception.

Finally they arrived,
And found the baby.
Each man fell to his knees,
Presented a gift.
Each one realized that what he sought,
And what he needed,
Were not the same at all.

This tiny child,
Who cried when he was cold,
Who found trusting comfort in the arms of his mother,
And who was vulnerable in every way,
Was a king, like no other.
Unprecedented.

The wise men could not comprehend it,
They abandoned their quest
To be made whole
Through what they could know.
Instead, they found
That they were made whole
Through what they could not understand.

Life changes
When Jesus is met
Face to face.

(Notes: The last three lines, "Life changes when Jesus is met face to face" is from a devotion written by Floyd Taylor. The first time I read the devotion, that line in particular struck me. I was lying in bed one morning, several years ago, thinking about this poem, it was connecting it to that line in particular that got me out of bed at 5:30 am to write it.)

Kim Matthews