Instead of a Star – A Missile

January 13, 2020

Scripture

When they saw the star, they were filled with joy! They entered the house and saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure chests and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

 (Matthew 2:10,11 NLT)

Instead of a Star – A Missile

Last week we remembered the wisdom figures who followed a star to the home of Jesus and his family. This week the flashes over the same sky which the Magi observed were a missile creating disaster.

Pictures of smiling families, youthful students, recently married couples, all victims of some “accidental” disaster. Their stories accompany the pictures in various media, their families and friends express grief at vigils across Canada. The geopolitics involved make answers inaccessible and confusing – but the pain is clear and pressing.

We need wise women and men to find ways to navigate this circumstance, who have a higher sense of purpose than personal or political gain. We have plenty of Herods to massacre the Innocents, but peace makers and hopeful visionaries are needed.

I don’t know the answers, or maybe even the questions, but I pray for these families whose citizenship is Canadian but whose homeland is governed by extremists. Theirs’are faces to remind us that many more like them are under oppression.

A Prayer for Today

Loving God, inspire us to seek the good and true, the gracious and the reconciling in a decade that is beginning with such easily observed pain. It isn’t new. Jesus, this is the way the world was when you entered time and you still walk with the world’s wounded – let us follow your steps .. .…. For Jesus’ sake