Lightly underlined in pencil. I looked up for a moment and squinted my eyes, trying to recall why, at some point, I had underlined that particular verse.
"And the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them.."
The star went ahead of them. I had never noticed that before. My mind still held the Sunday School image of a dazzling star centered directly over the A-frame of a stable---a flashing arrow or an X marking the spot.
But the star was moving? Shifting through the skies rhythmically with each obedient step of the Magi? No clear-cut destination or step-by-step directions to the doorstep of a new king? Just as in my own life, were the Wise Men being beckoned forward without understanding why or having any foreknowledge of where they were going?
But they chose to follow.
"When they saw the star, they were overjoyed."
A wild goose chase. Following a star and intuition. No confirmation or guarantees. The whole story was not spelled out to them in the prologue.
Yet they were overjoyed.
And chose to follow.
Slowly and steadily, the star led them. Gradually, they inched closer to their destination. The pilgrimage was long and, most likely, not easy. They might have had doubts along the way and even encountered some "bumps in the road." Were they always determined to move forward? Or were they ever tempted to make a U-turn and retrace their steps back to lives of familiarity?
But they did not turn around. Or if they did, they reconsidered.
They chose to follow.
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