Tuesday, January 13, 2009
2 Corinthians 4:6 It is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
THE STAR THAT LEADS US TO OUR KING AND LORD
In this season of Epiphany we remember how God revealed the identity of His Son to the citizens of our planet. How did He accomplish that? In many wonderful ways. One well-known example: He used a brightly shining star in the heavens to reveal His Son's identity (and whereabouts!) to certain Wise Men living in the Orient. This was not a natural star or even a group of high magnitude stars that happened to come together in the sky at the same time. It was a star created by God for the special purpose of indicating to these men, looking and longing for the Savior, that the Promised One had been born! Jesus, the very One prophesied of old who was to descend from the family line of David. In those days David's family had been "chopped down to size" and had become like a dead tree stump. But Jesus would grow up like a young plant and like a root that sprouts in dry ground, bringing life to a world perishing in sin.
Still today there's a star that shines brightly in our world, leading us to our life-giving Savior. Not a luminary like the one seen long ago by Magi in the starry heavens, but the brilliant light of God's holy Word. Through this blessed means He leads us to Jesus. He blesses us with ability to see and appreciate God's love as revealed in our Savior. Through the same Word He strengthens us in our faith and in our Christian life, and confirms in us our hope of eternal glory.
Songs of thankfulness and praise, Jesus, Lord, to Thee we raise,
Manifested by the star To the sages from afar,
Branch of royal David's stem, In Thy birth at Bethlehem.
Anthems be to Thee addressed God in man made manifest.
(The Lutheran Hymnal, 134:1)
