When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. Matthew 2:10

My husband and I have always enjoyed attending the Christmas Eve service at our church. In the early years of our marriage, we had a special tradition of bundling up in warm clothing after the service to hike up a nearby hill where 350 glowing lights were strung from tall poles in the shape of a star. There—often in the snow—we’d whisper our reflections on Jesus’ miraculous birth while we gazed out over the city. Meanwhile, many people in the town were looking up at the bright, string-light star from the valley below.

That star is a reminder of the birth of our Savior. The Bible tells of magi “from the east” who arrived in Jerusalem seeking “the one who [had] been born king of the Jews” (Matthew 2:1-2). They’d been watching the skies and had seen the star “when it rose” (v. 2). Their journey took them onward from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, the star going “ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was” (v. 9). There, they “bowed down and worshiped him” (v. 11).

Christ is the source of light in our lives both figuratively (as the one who guides us) and literally as the one who created the sun, moon, and stars in the sky (Colossians 1:15-16). Like the magi who “were overjoyed” when they saw His star (Matthew 2:10), our greatest delight is in knowing Him as the Savior who came down from the heavens to dwell among us. “We have seen his glory” (John 1:14)!

How has Jesus brought light to your life? With whom might you share that today?

Thank You, Jesus, for being the light of my life.

For further study, read Jesus or Herod? The Choice of the Magi.

Habakkuk 1-3; Revelation 15

We see an interesting connection between the genealogy in Matthew 1 and some key characters in Matthew 2. In the genealogy, several gentiles are listed among the ancestors of Jesus, including Rahab and Ruth (1:5). Rahab heard of the miracles God performed on behalf of the Israelites and decided she’d rather join God’s people than be destroyed along with her pagan city of Jericho (Joshua 2). Ruth left her country of Moab to follow her mother-in-law Naomi’s God—the one true God (Ruth 1:16-17) and became King David’s great-grandmother. In Matthew 2, the magi from the east came to search for “the one who has been born king of the Jews” (v. 2). They too were gentiles pursuing the one true God. John the apostle wrote: “[Jesus] is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2).

Tim Gustafson