On the day Jesus was born, the light of a certain star reached the sight of earth's leading astronomers - wise men from the East. We can assume that it hung directly over the town of Bethlehem in Judea which is how the magi found Jesus - by travelling towards the star looking up and up and up until the star was directly above them and then they were at their destination. Just like the pacific mariners would do many years later. Right? Well almost.
At some point they stopped looking up. Perhaps their necks were aching as the angle of looking up increased! Matthew 2:10 suggests they actually lost sight of it for a while. Whatever the reason, they began to look around instead of looking up and what they saw when they looked around was a palace.
Fast forward to present day and imagine you are a skilfully crafted creation of God, created in Christ Jesus for GOOD works - GOOD works that have been prepared for you by Father God. He prepared them for you to walk in them follow them through as your life's journey (That's Ephesians 2:10 in case you didn't recognise it). I don't know about you but I have had moments when the realisation of this has overwhelmed me.
Over a year ago, I knew a change was coming in my life and I felt utterly and completely unequipped, unprepared and inadequate. That was the word: inadequate. I knew that this realisation should make me more reliant on God but I couldn't seem to stop looking down - right down, within myself. If I had to pinpoint it exactly it was right inside my gut - I looked inside my gut and my heart and instead of seeing any skilled craftsmanship I just saw that I didn't have what it took to walk in the good works Father God had prepared for me. It was not a fun position to be in and maybe you have been there too?
In that moment, the Holy Spirit performed something utterly supernatural. So supernatural it terrified me until I decided to trust Him - He began to lift up my head. I felt my head being slowly, gently, tilted up - it turned from looking so far within myself I thought I would turn inside out to looking so directly up above me that I thought my head would fall off behind me and go bouncing along the floor. I never knew a head could be tilted so far back! (In fact, if you try it now, there comes a point where your head can actually rest in that upright position but you have to go all the way back!)
I began to worship. With all my heart and soul I began to sing out to Him - I should mention at this point I was at a women's conference with a few thousand other women all being led in worship by a very gifted worship leader but that is by the by. I discovered in the position of looking up, there was nothing between me and Him. I couldn't see any of the 3,000 other women in the room and I couldn't see me - all I knew was I was looking towards Him, our God in heaven, Jesus the Light of the World (John 8:12). And nothing was separating me from Him.
The psalmist lifts up his eyes to the hills to look for his help from God instead of looking at his own fear and despair or the evil around him (121:1). Isaiah tells us to lift our eyes to heaven which is eternal and see God because everything else down here will one day pass away (40:26). When Nebuchadnezzar lifted his eyes he said his understanding returned to him and he praised Him who is Most High and eternal. (Daniel 4:34)
So I was in good company! And the experience was so memorable that whenever I find myself head in hands, focusing on me and my weaknesses I remember to look up to Him and just keep walking.
So if we are looking up towards Jesus and still walking we will be making our decisions based on where He is leading instead of the distractions we see around ourselves. And now we come to the point of the wise men.
They were so close to the end of the journey and there was this huge palace in view and they knew they were looking for a king so they decided to take their eyes off the light above and instead follow their natural eyes. And what was the result? Every baby in Bethlehem since the day the star first appeared (which was probably Jesus’ birth day) lost their life shortly after that. To the natural eye it seemed like an obvious assumption to make but ultimately, they had stopped following the light.
So I'm writing this to myself today. I've been following the Light of the World (John 8:12), trying not to focus on my shortcomings but instead clinging onto His holiness, His enormous faith, His power and His love for me and you. And I've been walking by faith, seemingly in the dark for long enough that the tempting thing would be to stop and look around and start making assumptions about where God is leading me next. That's what the magi did and it didn't work out too well.
So I shall simply keep putting one foot in front of the other while I look up! I shall try very hard NOT to make any assumptions based on my natural circumstances, no matter how tempting it may be and keep my eyes on Him. Can I give you permission to remind me to look up and can I encourage you to do the same? Then we can once again share of God's faithfulness when we finally reach the next destination along our journey.
Look up and follow The Light of the World!
