Dear St. Mary's,
On this fourth Sunday in Advent, in Godly Play, we remember the Magi who followed a wild new star to meet the Christ child.
The Magi were questioners and wonderers. They were researchers and explorers. The story I grew up hearing was that they were wise and worldly astrologers who were eventually humbled enough to meet Jesus and that was the end of their journey. A very tidy Christmas conversion story. But as an adult with a lot of questions, I wonder what questions the Magi might have had after meeting Jesus? I wonder if they spent the rest of their lives trying to make sense of what they saw?
Like the Magi, children are also questioners and wonderers, researchers and explorers. They are so good at it. They are constantly investigating and finding all your important stuff and taking it apart. When Jesus welcomes the children to himself (in the Message version he gets “irate” at the disciples and tells them, “don’t ever get between them and me” which I love), Jesus says that children are at the center of God’s Kingdom—and that we all must accept the Kingdom like children. For a long time, I thought that meant you were supposed to have faith without question. But if you have ever spent any time around children you know that they ask questions constantly.
“Why?”
“How come?”
“How long?”
"What's that for?"
“How does that work?”
“When?”
And then “why” again about ten thousand more times.
They are looking and finding and paying attention. They are full of questions and curiosity, and I wonder how that allows them to see the places where the Kingdom is growing? Grown-ups like answers more than questions. We like the epiphany at the end of the journey. But I wonder if that certainty ever keeps us from seeing the Kingdom?
In the Godly Play story of Advent, we say that we are all on the journey to Bethlehem together with the Prophets, the Holy Family, the Shepherds, and the Magi, who traveled all that way and then left, possibly thinking, “I wonder what that was all about?” Their questions didn’t end with the Christmas story—it's where they began.
I wonder what you will find on your journey this Advent? Maybe you will find the child who came to save the world. And maybe with him, you will also find the child you once were, full of wonder and curiosity and more questions than answers.
Peace,
Flo