When Stars Move

Jake Frost focuses on an important lesson we can learn from the Magi who were led to the baby Jesus by a star.

The start of a new year is always exciting. It means a fresh start full of possibility. For the kids there are new semesters at school with the old grade books wiped clean, and for all of us it’s a chance to turn the page, put the past in the past, and begin anew.

It’s a time to dream, set a new course, choose a new star to steer by, catch a glimmer of what could be and then set the goals and make the plans to bring it to be.

One biblical nugget for the new journey into the unknown is a gift that comes to us from the famous gift-giving kings of the Epiphany: when you settle on your star to steer by, don’t be surprised if it moves!

For while the Magi dreamed and looked into the unknown, gazing with wonder into the heavens, and caught a glimmer of what could be, and saw the Star and set out to follow it, they had to adjust course along the way! Because the Star appeared and disappeared, proceeded and rested (Matthew 2:1-11).

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Setting plans and beginning journeys is good, but being open to changing them to adjust to God’s promptings is even better.

Even when—or especially when—God wants to send us by a different way than what we had planned for ourselves.

It can be scary—embarking on an adventure into the unknown, unsure what’s coming next, with things changing all around us, and even stars in the firmament moving in the sky above us.

But that’s how all the greatest adventures began.

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Setting plans and beginning journeys is good, but being open to changing them to adjust to God’s promptings is even better. #catholicmom

Abraham did it when he was called to go to a land he knew not (Genesis 12:1). Peter and his brother Andrew did it when Jesus called them from their nets to be fishers of men (Matthew 4:18-20). And Matthew himself, who recorded for us the story of the Magi, did it when Jesus called him from his counting house (Matthew 9:9).

Mary and Joseph did it when angels came to them with a request from God that would change their lives forever (Luke 1:26-38; Matthew 1:18-25).

It led them, and the Magi, and the whole world, to the manger on Christmas morning.

Maybe that’s why in Christmastide comes the time for dreaming, embracing the wonder all around us, and beginning anew.

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