Several centuries before this extraordinary story in the Gospel of Matthew, prophet Isaiah had dreamed about a magnificent gathering of multitudes of joyful people and caravans of “young” camels from far away arriving in the Holy Land with gold and incense and proclaiming the praise of the Lord.
Both for Isaiah and for Matthew, those caravans represented God’s decision to reveal his own Son to all the nations. Up until the visit by the three kings – also described as wise men, and even magi — the birth of Jesus had been a “local” event, something of great importance, but just for one nation, Israel.
Now, thanks to the three kings, the child born in Bethlehem became a global event, a mighty “aha” moment for the whole world to see. And when the three kings returned to their own country, the Bethlehem “secret” ceased to be a secret.
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For millions of children around the world –including many Hispanic kids here in this country — tomorrow, January 6, is going to be a day as exciting as Christmas Day and their own birthdays . . .
Do you know why? Sometime tonight while they sleep in their cozy beds, the three kings will stop by to drop the toys they dreamed of for a long time. What a great day it was for me and my brothers and all the kids in our neighborhood!
Even though the night of January 5 into January 6 was hot, humid summertime in Argentina, we kept our bedroom windows wide open. We knew that the three kings would stop by while we were sleeping to make us happy. We didn’t care much for gold, myrrh, and frankincense, just our favorite toys.
We didn’t know what epiphany meant.
All we knew is that the three kings from far away had made babe Jesus so happy with their presents, they decided that every year they would go around the whole world just two weeks after Santa with more toys for us.
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In the early Christian church, the festival of the Three Kings soon became the starting point of the epiphany season. A holy season in the church calendar to remind us that God revealed himself in the babe of Bethlehem. But also, to promise us that God would never stop appearing to us.
And that’s what God keeps doing. God reveals himself in the trees and the flowers, for instance, and in the oceans, in the sky, in the geese and the squirrels, in the delivery room and even the funeral home. In the face of the “illegal” immigrant who is cleaning our home and partaking with us today.
In our singing, in our fellowship, in the message our children shared with us this morning. In the partners for prayer that Mr. Carl told us about. In the joy that both Darlene and Bill are sharing with us today as they celebrate the first week of marriage.
God may just be sitting beside us in the pew or might call on the phone this afternoon. We all meet God in different ways and at different times and places in our lives. For God is always unveiling a new secret about him, and about us.
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God is alive and well, my friends, always revealing a little bit more about himself in the hopes that our faith may be strengthened as we follow our star with the same sense of trust and joy the three kings followed theirs.
Thanks be given to God for all his revelations, for the endless “aha” signs of his loving presence in our midst.