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A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Dr Krish Kandiah

Good morning.

A picture of three pairs of skis. A child holding a sign saying, ‘Every Superhero needs a sidekick’. A blue – or pink – reveal cake. It seems we are getting quite creative about the way we announce the coming arrival of a new baby.

Thousands of years ago, another picture was sent out into space and time. An unmissable stellar event was carefully choreographed to announce the approaching birth of God’s son. A handful of Eastern scholars spotted it and decided this was too good not to be shared.

So it was that sometime after the nativity, wise men travelled to Bethlehem despite the great distance, and despite the despotic King Herod hijacking their mission for his own power mongering.

After they had found Jesus and worshipped him, they set off on the long, difficult journey home, and the Infant Jesus began a similarly long, difficult journey in the opposite direction. To avoid King Herod’s murder of the innocents, Jesus and his family became refugees.

Some 26 million people around the globe can relate to that. They understand tyranny and terror and poverty and destitution, and the uncertain journey towards what is supposed to be a fundamental human right: seeking safety and asylum.

King Herod and the wise men both verbalised a desire to worship Jesus, but their attitude and their ambitions could not have been more different. One brought gifts and bestowed honour. The other tried to wipe out all trace of Jesus’ existence and influence.

Maybe we recognise these tensions around us. Maybe we feel the time-old tug in our own hearts: to extinguish faith, or to explore it, to push strangers away, or to welcome them with honour. Which way will we choose?

Lord God, give us the wisdom of the Wise Men that is willing to forego the comforts of home and security of our national identity and move forward with generosity, honour and welcome to those who need it.

Amen.

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