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So…

This past fall we had the wonderful experience of being able to host for a week of “Nana Camp” Noah, and then later Emma, our grandchildren.

What a completely exhausting treat!

They are so stinking cute, especially one of them. Unique personalities. Driven in different ways. Emma is only two after her birthday in November. Noah was five on July 4.

Did I mention I will be 67 on January 29? 

This is good fun! But, wow, it is a lot of work! 

Sue is amazing and puts in a lot of thought about what to do with each of them, how we will keep a workable schedule, what we will feed them, and what we will do if they get sick or homesick or just plain crabby.

They are not even a little bit the same. Noah heads to the sandbox and might reappear again two hours later having built a whole city’s road system.

Emma is good for about 15 minutes in the sandbox.

So, it’s a challenge. But we wouldn’t have it any other way.

And with birthdays so far apart we really have been able to treat each of them uniquely. Different kids, different parties!
But can you imagine – even a little bit - a birthday party for your little where three Magi show up?

The correct answer is “no”! Not even!

You understand who these people were, right?

Magi, or what has been roughly translated from the ancient Greek as Wisemen or worse Kings, were actually astrologers.

And the word Magi is the root from which we get the word “magician”.

Imagine getting your party ready, family has gathered, the food is on the table, and who comes knocking at the door but a caravan of:

Foreigners!

Pagans!

Priests of a sort of a religious practice that is forbidden to devout Jews!

A whole mess of them, because no one in their right mind would travel in those days in anything but a large group!

And then, coming into the house - not even your house - to bow beside the cradle of your newborn son, delivering ridiculous gifts!

Not pampers and formula. Not even a car seat or a stroller more complex than your car. 

Nope! They brought wildly expensive spices and gold. 
From which we get the idea of three of them, since we are told there was three gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

The idea being that each Magi brought a gift and not that the lot of them brought the most expensive gifts they could find together.

Gifts not for a baby!

Gifts for…

Well, a King for sure…

But a King whose birth in their understanding changed the heavens!

A King who in our thinking has changed the heavens as well, considering Jesus as the Word, created the heavens and the earth.

Think about that. They certainly did! 

And endured much to be at his birthday celebration. To be there to see him face to face.

Their story is that they saw a new star in the sky, and as astrologers, they thought they also saw information, not just a new ball of flaming gas…

But rather a message that said to them that a new and amazing person of cosmic royalty had been born.

Can you imagine such a thing?

Who could come to your birthday party that would even be at a fraction as amazing as these?

Their presence sets the birth story of Jesus on a new plain. Yes, he may be the King of the Jews and our Lord and Savior.

But this child who lays on Mary’s breast is so, so, so much more.

God incarnate.

You see, Christmas is an introduction to a story well beyond the manger.

It is a story about God among us. 

A presence we are to share.

And today, we are to begin our journey. 

Bring our best gifts. 

And see in the child – God – face to face.

On your mark, get set, go!

Amen.