My dad was in a Christmas production years ago at a local public school. He played one of the three kings. He got to wear a big crown and march down the aisle singing. All the kids loved it.
About a month later, my dad was walking on the sidewalk near the school and a little boy ran up to him. Grabbing hold of the chain-link fence, the boy yelled, “Hey! I know you! You was one of those WISE GUYS!”
Wise Guys. I like that. The Wise Guys. They were probably not kings. What kind of a king could just up and leave his kingdom? The Bible does not say that they are kings, but we seem to have assumed that they were royalty because they give such profoundly wealthy gifts. Gold. Frankincense. Myrrh. Gifts FOR a king. Treasures for the Son of God.
The Bible does not say much about these men except that they were wise and that they came from the East. They were wise because they sought out the Christ child and they found him. They were wise because they recognized Jesus before anybody else did. It took most of the disciples until after the resurrection to begin to get it! Peter understood who Jesus was after walking around with him for about a year and a half. Most people never understood who Jesus really was. But the Wise Guys got it. They really got it. They must have been truly awake, watching and waiting. They seemed to know what they were looking for.
When JD and I go on road trips, we occasionally get lost. I will suggest that we ask for directions, but JD will usually refuse until I insist. I will needle him until he finally pulls into a gas station with a sigh, as if to ask for directions is to give up. Why is it that most men don’t like to ask for directions?
My folks got a GPS system for Christmas. They call it Gertrude. She speaks in a British accent and calls the highway the moterway. My folks will never be lost again, but I find her presence kind of confining. There is no wandering with Gertrude on your back. There is no getting lost, no asking for help, no searching for the destination. She maps it all out for you.
Most of us like to map out our lives. We want to know exactly where we will be in five years, ten years. We plan our careers and plan for retirement, we map out our children’s education and how we are going to pay for it. We make New Year's resolutions and five year plans. And there is no room for wandering. There is no room for God to guide us because we have already made up our minds. When we come to a fork in the road, we are told which way to go. Our minds are already made up.
I think that those Wise Guys wandered. That was part of their wisdom. They did not have everything planned out. They were willing to take off on the spur of the moment, travel in the dark to follow the light of a distant star. We know that they must have felt lost, for they go to King Herod to ask for directions!
I’m not saying that New Year’s resolutions are bad, but don’t plan your life so tightly that there is no room for God. You can lead a smooth life on a strict plan, but if you want to lead a life of meaning, you must be willing to wander around in the dark for awhile. Following God is not always a straight shot. Even Jesus did not always know what was going to happen next. On the cross, he wondered if God had abandoned him. But he was willing to follow God’s surprising curves rather than map out his own life. From a worldly perspective, Jesus’ life was a complete failure. Only God could know that his resurrection would change the world. Only God could take an unknown Jesus peasant and alter human consciousness with that one life freely given.
On the way home from the holidays, I sat next to a pilot on the airplane. He loves his job. He says that when he gets busy and distracted my the details of daily life, he goes up in an airplane. He sees the most beautiful sunsets. He looks down from the heavens and marvels at how small we humans are. And everything seems to fall into perspective.
Maybe we should make a different kind of New Year’s resolution in 2009. Maybe we should aim to be Wise, like those Wise Guys. To watch, to wait, and to wander in search of the Christ.
