Day Nine: Magi!

I'd never heard the word "Magi" until about 2006. That was when I was at the Dollar Tree and wanted to buy a Christmas decoration for our college apartment. However, I was too cheap to buy a full Nativity set, so I just bought a single Wise Man. When I got home and set the One King of Orient up on our coffee table, my roommates asked where the Magi came from. I assumed they were talking about some type of ethnic food in the fridge.

Then I learned the word Magi.

Turns out it is a pretty complicated word.  Its Wikipedia article mentions six different languages and Zoroastrianism.  And Christians from Ethiopia, Armenia, China, Persia, India, Arabia, and (geographically challenged one's from) Great Britain have all claimed that at least one of these Wise Men hailed from their countries.

To all this, I say: Yes.

All this, the languages, the claims, makes the point clearer. These men came from somewhere, somewhere very far from Bethlehem, to worship. They may or may not have been but Jews, but their mere journey and belief in Jesus as the Christ reveals a major element of God's character.

He loves people. He loves people all over the world. He loves them so much that one of his conditions for that Second Advent is that there will be souls from every single people group with him for eternity.

It only makes sense that at his first arrival party he'd want to invite some folks from all over. Sure, Arabia, Armenia, Ethiopia, China, even the Celts who definitely don't live remotely East of Bethlehem, "Come on over!"

He's not the God of just one people.  He doesn't belong to, prefer, or get enamored by any human culture.  He's the God of all people.

Welcome Magi, you can come from as many countries as you want, because one day that is how we all will worship.

"You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals,
because you were slain,
and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.
You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth."