Wednesday, December 23, 2020       (today’s lectionary)
The star
Yesterday, we took Miles to his first (I think) feature length movie! We saw The Star, a rollicking movie with a sense of humor about Jesus’ nativity. Oprah Winfrey plays one of the three wise camels. Christopher Plummer reads out a very nasty King Herod. And Gina Rodriguez is the sweetest, lovingest, caring Mary you’ll ever see.
Your ways, O Lord, make known to me. Teach me your paths, guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my savior.
He loved it. Miles loves Jesus. He talks about him a lot. When Andi reads a Bible story to him (from The Storybook Bible) she asks him questions. Sometimes he isn’t listening, sometimes he’s distracted, and sometimes he finds wise ways to express the love he has for Jesus. Miles is 4, and I am learning so much from him.
Two days ago Jupiter and Saturn got as close in the sky as they ever will, and NASA says it’s been 800 years since it’s been visible at night. Of course this year we call this phenomenon the Christmas Star. And if we have the time, we might decide to follow it to Bethlehem. An amazing birth is planned for tomorrow night.
Thus says the Lord God: Lo, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way for me. And suddenly there will come to the temple the Lord whom you seek. He is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming?
Temps in the low 40’s, a cloudless sky on a dark night, and the Christmas Star hovers over the stable. Shepherds hear angels, see the Northern Lights, can’t get back to sleep, and bring their whole menagerie with them, following the Star. The wise men and their wise camels at last reach the end of their journey, years in the planning and months in the making, and as their camels bow, they slide off and they bow too.
All who heard these things took them to heart and said, “What, then, will this child be?” For surely the hand of the Lord was with him.
Don’t you want to be there? Watch this video, and you are!
Or this video, if you want to pray rather than laugh.
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