Dear Friends of the Prayer League,<\/p>\n
I love the shepherds and the angels.\u00a0 I adore the sheep and cattle we also place carefully into the scene.\u00a0 I prize those images of Mary and Joseph, right there at the center, of course, lovingly watching over the humble manger.\u00a0And in that tiny feeding trough we find, best and greatest of all, the baby Jesus, sometimes not until Christmas morning. \u00a0At least that\u2019s the way we\u2019ve done it in our home.\u00a0 And I really like it that way.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I love all\u00a0<\/em>the characters in our traditional nativity scenes.\u00a0 Likewise, how wonderful it is to see our costumed children retelling the story of our Savior\u2019s birth in our churches\u2019 Christmas programs and services!\u00a0 I love it!<\/p>\n Now I suppose the magi, or \u201cthree wise men,\u201d as we typically call them, really shouldn\u2019t make their appearance until the celebration of the Epiphany on January 6, but I confess that in all of the nativity sets Pris and I place around our home, the \u201cwise men\u201d are there from the very beginning, camels and all!\u00a0Ever since I was a wide-eyed child at Christmas time I\u2019ve held a special appreciation for the wise men, in the nativity scene, and in the Christmas story.\u00a0 Maybe it\u2019s because they\u2019re the \u201cforeigners\u201d in the crowd, or because it took a major road trip to get them there, or because they brought gifts, odd as those gifts might seem at a baby shower.\u00a0 Or maybe because they were dressed so cool.<\/p>\n Matthew\u2019s Gospel tells us why these star-gazing scholars \u201cfrom the east\u201d were so special, why we might consider them truly \u201cwise.\u201d\u00a0 They made their purpose clear to a startled Herod: \u201cWhere is he who has been born king of the Jews?\u201d they asked him.\u00a0 \u201cFor we saw his star when it rose and have come worship to him.\u201d\u00a0 (Matthew 2:2)<\/p>\n These festooned foreigners had come to worship<\/em>!\u00a0 They had come to worship none other than a king<\/em>, a \u201cking of the Jews\u201d prophesied in the Old Testament to be a saving \u201crefuge\u201d for all nations and their kings. (Psalm 2)\u00a0 How did these wise men worship?\u00a0\u00a0 We don\u2019t know that they had any hymn to sing or liturgy to recite.\u00a0But this we do know: upon their arrival in Bethlehem \u201cthey saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.\u201d\u00a0 (Matthew 2:11)\u00a0 They worshiped our Lord Jesus \u2013 their <\/em>Lord Jesus \u2013 with gifts!\u00a0 They weren\u2019t looking for something in return.\u00a0 They weren\u2019t bargaining for a favor.\u00a0 Who does that\u00a0<\/em>with a baby?\u00a0 No, they committed themselves to the long journey, they prepared precious gifts with special meaning, and they bowed in reverent submission before the baby born to be Savior of the world.\u00a0 They came to \u201ckiss the son.\u201d\u00a0 (Psalm 2:12)<\/p>\n Did this infant king have need of these gifts?\u00a0 After all, what could the King of all kings, the God of the universe, possibly \u201cneed\u201d from us, his humble subjects?\u00a0 Remarkably, as you likely already know, these valuable gifts from the wise men, given in worship, served Mary and Joseph in a timely way as they fled to Egypt and sojourned there to protect the life of their baby. (Matthew 2:13) \u00a0God\u2019s mission to save the world through Christ the Savior, born in Bethlehem, was partly \u201cfinanced,\u201d if you will, by the wise men\u2019s gifts.\u00a0 Their worship turned into a participation in God\u2019s great salvation story, beginning with the Christmas story.<\/p>\n I want to thank you, dear friends and fellow followers of Jesus, for sending your gifts to the World Mission Prayer League during this past year and for your partnership through the NALC.\u00a0Knowing how these gifts are used for the cause of the Kingdom, I\u2019d like to say it was a wise thing to do!\u00a0 We count them as an act of worship, given in honor of our Savior and for the purpose of extending his salvation to all the earth.\u00a0Likewise, we regard your regular and ongoing prayers for the unreached and for our workers throughout the world as essential to our mission.\u00a0 Thank you!<\/p>\n Merry Christmas to you!\u00a0 May you know the peace announced by the angels and the joy brought by the Christ child!\u00a0May you know, trust, and worship Jesus, the Savior!\u00a0 And may you to do so \u201cwisely.\u201d<\/p>\n In Jesus,<\/p>\n