“Are we there yet?”

image courtesy of dbsjeyaraj.com

“Are we there yet?” Most of us have probably both uttered and heard that lament from the back seat of a car.  As a child, I can remember asking the question in my most whiny voice.  Rather than looking for an exact time of arrival, I think it more likely that I was expressing a mixture of  boredom with the ride with the excitement of wanting to be wherever it was we were going.

Going back a few years, as my wife and I raised our kids in the pre-electronic game world (and with no videos to be shown on board), we also were asked how much longer this trip was going to take.

Traveling back many, many more years, I wonder if the Three Wise Men ever asked that question? After all, they were traveling many miles, either on foot or on the back of a camel, while most likely spending the vast majority of their nights under the stars.  Through heat and cold, rain and wind, they followed the most unlikely of signs, a moving star, determined to worship in person to the One who was born King of the Jews.

Matthew’s gospel records what happens when these Wise Men finally reached their destination:

When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.  On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him.  Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, and of incense and of myrrh. Matthew 2:10-11 NIV.

These travelers persevered through every challenge they faced on their great journey.  Not knowing what to expect, they pressed on and found the Son of God.

May we all, as we take our own journey through the Christmas season, face every trial and challenge with the assurance that this baby born way back then was (and is) indeed God with us, Christ the Lord!

Blessings,

Pastor Chuck