The Wise Men’s Christmas Lesson: Bowing Over a Newborn Baby

It always slows me down at Christmas to imagine those great wise men kneeling at the side of the brand new baby King. It helps understand real power. Living inside the DC beltway, it’s easy to get that definition wrong and it is so important to get it right.

Their heads were bowed over a newborn baby. Their heart’s longing was satisfied in that moment. With a tenacity hard for us (and them) to imagine, they pursued Him. They crossed the desert in pursuit of an answer to deep temporal and spiritual hunger. They found the great Teacher. Grown men, confused and determined, found answers in a most unlikely place. Later that grown up child would continue to point to the defenseless and vulnerable child as model for all who hunger for heaven.

That lesson, given in such love and mercy for so many reasons, certainly applies to our work. In the work you, the SBA List staff, my family and I do at the SBA List, we know how powerful these unlikely teachers are even before they are born. They teach something we cannot. While it is easy to consider these little teachers mini-adults, unevolved social creatures, or future producers, Christmas teaches us to rejoice in each child of God as they are. They are not pure potential, they are pure, untainted Love, valuable in themselves. Those boys and girls who are almost but not quite born teach us who we are called to be – unconditional lovers of God’s creatures.

I sat down to write this to you Christmas Eve morning just as the pitch and volume and activity at our home begin to reach the normal levels for this day. Again, you and our mission bring us all back to the deeply joyful place where the Wise Men found themselves.