The Unsure

Have you been surprised by the characters that played a central role in the Christmas story? An unknown, unmarried woman from a small town became the mother of this promised Messiah. A group of forgotten, overlooked, and seemingly unimportant night-shift shepherds became the first messengers of God's arrival into the world. An old man, Simeon, waiting for the promised Messiah becomes the first to proclaim that the Savior of the world has arrived in Jerusalem - the city of kings. 

As surprising as those characters may have been, no group of people should be more surprising than a group of pagan, stargazers from the east that we meet in Matthew 2. From what little Matthew shares about these men, we know they aren't Jewish people who believe in God. They more than likely worship several gods, and we know they practice interpreting the stars to determine future events - which is a practice forbidden by God in the Old Testament. 

If it were up to us, the Wise Men should never have been invited to play a lead role in this story, but God works in ways that are different than ours. God reaches out to these skeptics to communicate the arrival of his Son through the very practice he had forbidden. God reached out to these pagan skeptics who were unsure about what they were stepping into and these men in fact helped to protect and serve this poor family. They might have hoped to gain something from their trip, but they left leaving gifts behind. They might have hoped to gain influence in this new kingdom.  Instead, they left in secret to protect this baby boy from the mad King Herod. 

Reflect: If God would go to such great lengths to reach these unsure, skeptical people - how might God be willing to reach out to you in your doubt? How is God calling you to reach out to the people whom you would never expect to play a role in his story? 

Pray: "God, thank you for reaching out to people both near to you and far from you. If you love all people, help me to love all people just like your Son Jesus does."

Thanks for completing this reading plan! We pray that this helped you get connected to Jesus. We would love to hear from you on how God used this plan in your life. Keep the conversation going by emailing us at keeptalking@secc.org.