Principles of the Nativity: Wise Men Still Seek Him

So I have been thinking a lot about each person in the nativity and how each of the characters teach me lessons about who I want to be. Each member plays such a significant role in that miraculous night and I want to pay tribute to them all this month, starting with the wise men.

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There are so many things we can learn from the wise men and their journey to Christ. The wise men traveled for a long time by the guidance of the star that appeared at Jesus' birth. Assuming they began as soon as the star appeared it took them roughly two years to reach the Savior. Once they got to Christ they gave him three valueble and meaningful gifts; gold, frankincense, and myrrh. I find it also interesting that once they found Christ they "went back another way". This was because they were warned in a dream to avoid Herod. After that we don't really know what happened to them. But this small insert in the nativity story brings to mind three lessons we can learn from them.

1-We are all on a journey to find Christ. It may be a long and sometimes difficult journey, just I am sure the desert land these men had to travel through included hot days, sand storms, and the discomfort of camel travel. But, I am sure there were good times. I am sure they got to know each other and be there for each other many a time during their journey to find Christ, just as all of us can be. I am sure there were also some beautiful scenes, sunrises, sunsets, oasis, and other moments of peace and contentment. On our way to Christ we can find joy in the journey so long as we follow His star to find Him. Today we have the star of the gospel that will lead us directly to Christ; not nearby or close enough or in the general area, but exactly to Christ like no other thing can. May we follow this star and find joy in our own journey to Christ.

2-When they found Christ they gave him meaningful and expensive gifts. When we come to Christ do we give him gifts that mean something to Him? Are they gifts that show Him we understand who He is? Do we give gifts that take sacrafice and effort to give? Only gifts of this kind allow us to truly find Christ and let Him change ourselves to become more like Him through the Atonement. Gifts such as faith, repentance, baptism, temple worship, kindness to our family and fellowmen, the study of His words; these are gifts that allow Christ to change us and show Christ our love and knowledge of Him as the Savior of the World. This allows item three to occur in us.
3-When the wisemen left they "departed into their own country another way" (Matthew 2:12). When we find Christ, do we? Do we have spiritual experiences that touch our hearts and immediately go back to who we were before? Or do we act upon those moments, "go back another way", and strive to become more like Jesus our brother? Like Nephi and his brothers of old that saw an angel we all have a choice when we see the hand of God in our lives-act and become or go back to what was comfortable (1 Nephi 3:31-4:4). The latter is much easier, but if we seek to have true joy in our lives we must take the higher way. If we do so we will "go back another way". If not, we risk spiritually killing Christ out of our lives as the wisemen would have put Christ in danger had they gone back to Herod. Only when we choose to act when we find Christ do we leave our journey as a new creature on our path to truly become sons and daughters of God.

Ether's Barges

I am nearly to the end of the Book of Mormon and there is always a little feeling of excitement for me as I complete reading this remarkable book. Right now I am reading in Ether, a record of a people that came to the America's soon after the fall of the Tower of Babel. I love reading about how they make their journey here to the promise land. The brother of Jared is asked to build barges "tight like unto a dish" (Ether 2:17). He faithfully builds these barges and then discovers he has two problems; no light and no air. He goes to the Lord to ask for his help. The Lord tells him to cut a hole on the top and bottom of the barges, that way, when they need air, they can unstop the hole and let air in. If water comes in instead, they were to just stop the hole up. The brother of Jared again faithfully completes the Lord's instructions, THEN he goes back and asks about the light. Our Savior doesn't tell him how to overcome this problem, he tells the brother of Jared "What will ye that I should do that ye may have light in your vessels? For behold, ye cannot have windows, for they will be dashed in pieces; neither shall ye take fire with you, for ye shall not go by the light of fire...Therefore what will ye that I should prepare for you that ye may have light when ye are swallowed up in the depths of the sea?" (Ether 2:23-25). The brother of Jared again faithfully follows the Lord's instructions. He thinks about it, cuts some stones out of the mountain, and returns humbly to the Lord and asks him to touch the stones and make them give off light. Then something amazing happens, the brother of Jared sees the finger of the Lord touch each stone, and, they give off light. After an incredible visitation of the pre-mortal Christ the brother of Jared again returns off the mountain to accomplish what the Lord has asked him to do-place the stones in the barges and then take a leap of faith, enter them, and trust the Lord will guide him and his family to the promise land. Of course, the journey was long and not easy, in fact, the "winds did never cease to blow" (Ether 6:8), but they blew always in the direction of the promise land, and 344 days later the Lord did as he promised, and every one of those barges made it safely to the land prepared for them-the promised land.

What a beautiful pattern for our own journey to the promise land-to live with our Heavenly Fater again. We all have taken the leap of Faith to be here on Earth and seek to be like our Father so that we can live with him some day. The brother of Jared has taught me some  powerful lessons about this journey:

1) When we have problems in life we go to our Heavenly Father, but we don't just ask for help, we willingly follow his advice no matter how hard or crazy the advice sounds. Personally I would have hoped for a better answer than "cut holes in your boat and open them when you need and just hope water doesn't spill in instead". But the brother of Jared didn't wait for an answer he wanted, he went and did.

2) Sometimes the Lord trusts us to come up with a solution. He may give us some guidance, but ultimately, He wants us to come up with a solution, and then come to him in Faith and ask Him to approve our solution. He will either approve it or tell us to keep searching, and when we do have a solution, He is avaliable to help us with it. It is these experience that build our Faith and build ourselves the most. The brother of Jared increased His faith from this that he could "not be kept back from beholding within the veil" (Ether 3:19)  and actually saw the finger and then the pre-mortal body of of Savior Jesus Christ.
3) Finally that we all must take a leap of Faith sometimes and get into the boat. There were 8 barges and none of them had any way of talking to each other and no way to steer in their journey, yet they got in the boat and "commended themselves unto the Lord their God" (Ether 6:4). We must all take leaps of Faith sometimes that are scary and sometimes long-lived, like 344 days long. BUT we will always end up where the Lord wants us to end up, and the journey will be far worth not only the destination, but what we ourselves have become because of the journey. Though the winds never ceased to blow, they blew towards the promise land. Our journey may not be easy, it may be very windy, but we can know that these trials are for our good and without them, we would never steer and move towards the promise land.
I know that the scriptures have great lessons for us to learn and that we can apply them to our lives with both Faith that the Lord can and Hope that He will perform these same miracles in our own lives. May we search the scriptures daily as we strive to progress on our own journey back to the presence of our loving and, might I add very anxious to see us again, Heavenly Father...