And yet, they desired to bow down and worship this child who came, not just for the Jews. Their home location and their occupation means that these wise men were likely Gentiles. These men from the East studied the stars and because of that, they were prompted to travel all the way to Bethlehem to visit an ordinary Jewish child. But they were wise men, who had come from far away- from a land where astrology was practiced. But in Chapter 2, Matthew turns his attention to their visitors. He sets the scene that they are simple people who come from a long line of ancestors who followed the will of God. Just as we read this scripture each year at Epiphany, we are reminded of those wise men who found Jesus because they had spent time wondering as they looked up at the sky.Ĭompared to the Christmas story in Luke that we heard last weekend, Matthew’s Christmas story is much more abbreviated. And each year, as we drove home from the service, I would stare out the window of the backseat of my parents’ wood-paneled station wagon, looking up at the stars…wondering.Īnd that’s exactly where our scripture passage finds us this morning. That song doesn’t necessarily take place at night, but in my mind (and I dare to say, probably in many of yours), the song doesn’t paint a picture of being under a blue sky in the daytime but instead, this song always gives me the image of walking out under the stars wondering and pondering things about Jesus.Īnd because it was a song sung at Christmas, the thought of being out under the night’s sky, looking for answers of God and faith and Christ, seemed not just normal, but maybe even required for a person of faith.Īnd so, for several years after that, I was asked to sing that same song on Christmas Eve. I remember loving the word “orn’ry” because it reminded me of my Granny.īut I think I loved it most because it was the beginning of my connection between my faith and the stars. I loved the way the words came together in a simple rhyme. I suppose that I loved the sound of the minor key in which it was written. I’d not heard it before, but I had an immediate fondness for it. When I was in the first grade, I was asked to sing that song at my church on Christmas Eve. For poor, orn’ry people, like you and like I
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