Our Wandering Wise Men - December 4
OLD MAN, OR THE LAST GIFT GIVEN TO MEN
Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar were not interested in looking for Christ in the defeats, disgraces, and failures of their own lives-and to them it certainly did not feel like hope. They were even starting to feel sorry for themselves and making excuses for themselves and explaining to each other why they couldn’t be expected to prepare their hearts for the Christ child. Then they made the mistake of singing their blues to an old man who reminded them that Abraham had been too old, Jacob had been a liar, Leah had been ugly, Moses was a murderer who had a stutter, Jeremiah had been too young, Gideon had been too scared, Job had been bankrupt, and Zechariah and Elizabeth had been old and barren when they had John the Baptist, who was pretty good at preparing the way for Christ. So what exactly was their excuse again? Like Zechariah, they shut their mouths.
WESLEY’S QUESTION: Am I self conscious, self-pitying or self justifying?
SCRIPTURE: “In the days of Herod, King of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years.” (Luke 1:5-7) See also Genesis 18:12-15
FOOLISH WISDOM: “It is currently said that Hope goes with youth, and lends to youth its wings of a butterfly; but I fancy that hope is the last gift given to man, and the only gift not given to youth. Youth is pre-eminently the period in which a man can be lyric, fanatical, poetic; but youth is the period in which a man can be hopeless. The end of every episode is the end of the world. But the power of hoping through everything, the knowledge that the soul survives its adventures, that great inspiration comes to the middle aged; God has kept that good wine until now. It is from the back of the elderly gentlemen that the wings of the butterfly should burst.” (G.K. Chesterton, Charles Dickens: Last of the Great Men)
MUSIC SELECTION
Not That Far from Bethlehem by Jeff Borders, Gayla Borders, and Lowell Alexander
Margaret Tobat, solo and Laura Hesse, piano
© 1999 Milene Music, Inc.
CCLI Song # 2879509 Used by permission. For use solely with the SongSelect Terms of Use. All rights reserved. www.ccli.com. CCLI License #2740836.
Listen Here: https://centreville-umc.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Not-That-Far-from-Bethlehem.mp3