What guides each of us? We all have something that drives us…something that gives us purpose. I heard a neat comparison on this (I would say recently but time gets away from me, after all it’s less than 10 days before we move, so it was probably months ago).
The three wise men from the Bible desired to seek the newborn King, they were seeking the true Light and wisdom. They followed the star (light) and didn’t rely on their own strength to find Him or His birthplace. They were open to God’s guidance by listening and not questioning the direction “We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.” Then when they arrived there was no doubt in their actions “they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him.” They continued listening to and obeying God after wards by ignoring Herod’s plea of “as soon as you find him, report to me” rather they “having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.”
While Herod on the other hand desired to keep his power, wealth and position. After hearing of the birth of the king of the Jews “he was disturbed” and wanted to find out where He was so “Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared.” He wasn’t interested in worshiping Jesus (as he had told the Magi “as soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”) his interests lay in himself. When he “realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.”
(above verses from Matthew 2 NIV)
As I contemplate these two I can see myself in both at various times in my life and I’ve learned (and continue to learn) that whenever I ask for God’s help to seek His light He is always faithful and His grace is sufficient for me to continue on. However, when I look at myself and what I could lose or have taken from me I turn my attention to those things instead of the One who gave me those things. They aren’t mine…I must learn to share, not only my “things” but my time, talent and resources, allowing God to loosen my tight grip on them so He can hold my hand and lead me closer to Him.
I pray I’m not in Herod’s company by seeking my own desires, but with the three wise men who seek the Star.