Funny. I never gave thought to the practical details of the wise men’s journey - who tended the animals, who packed the food, cooked and cleaned up, built the fires, cared for the sick (and someone was bound to get sick on a long trip, of course) back in that time before Triple A, Web pages and cell phones handled travel arrangements. At least not until Ted Loder, a capital S kind of Storyteller, allowed me to think about it through the eyes of a tent bearer, one of those “hired hands” who might have made the trip work for the three kings.

“The three men who hired me as a tent bearer for their journey studied the stars like nothing else mattered,” he says, acknowledging the importance of that focus, but adding, “but I think studyin’ the stars can also lead you off the mark if you look at them too long. And if you look at only the stars, they put you in a kind of trance. You lose touch with other important things. You just don’t see those things, you miss ’em.”

Among the things the magi missed, the tent bearer tells us, were the helpers they had hired for the journey, whom they ignored until they needed them for some service. They also missed the lives of the workers - those who took care of each other, those who fell in love with a sweetness that lit up the tiresome journey for everyone, gifts of music making and story telling that were revealed to each other as they came to know each other through the endless days and nights.

“I swear those stargazers never noticed a whole flock of things that made my heart beat faster, or that put a lump in my throat and made me whisper, ‘Thank you, God’” he said. But the thing that was most bothersome to the tent bearer, as he quietly followed the wise men into the stable that they had come so far to find (“They were so caught up with the things they thought important that they never told us what they were thinkin’ or where we were headed. They were so totally caught up in what they cared about that they didn’t see anything else.”) was that the three men didn’t really seem to see the baby at all, or the mother and father, either. “They didn’t smile, or touch his cheek or kiss his head right there on the velvet-like spot on top - it was, as if, for them, the baby was just really far off, as removed from the world as the stars they’d been so busy plottin’ around.”

Oh, tent bearer! Perhaps you are the wise one - reminding me that not noticing, not seeing what is under my nose is not simply the curse of those long-ago magi (if your perceptions should be correct) but continue to be the curse of humankind. God has to keep trying to get my attention, to help me know the further truths that lie beyond my small, limited life and its passions, just the way He had to grab hold of Mary and Thomas and all of the others.

One of the other things that the tent bearer observed was that the magi had picked out the gifts they were carrying with them before the trip even started (he was a little puzzled about whether or not they were even appropriate for a baby!), and were dead set on following their plan, and giving those particular gifts “no matter what.” So I am left to wonder how they would have handled things if in that pre-ultrasound world, predictions had gotten a little confused and pink was called for rather than blue. Whether the shock of their sureness interrupted would have tainted their adoration.

Of course, it was only a story.

Yet stories can be awfully important.

Like The Story that has been changing the world bit by tiny bit since the manger.

Christmas. Under our noses.

The star for those who dare look.
The song for those who dare hear.
The child for those who dare love and
the expectancy of joy beyond all understanding.

Christmas.

May it open our hearts eternally.

Tracks in the straw: Tales spun from the manger by Ted Loder was published by Innisfree Press in 1985.

Prev | Next

Editor’s Corner

The January issue of The Advocate is focused on informing the people of the Diocese of Lexington about the upcoming Diocesan Convention, and introducing nominees for Diocesan Offices through pictures and personal statements. Thanks go to the Nominating Committee, chaired by the Rev. Robert Sessum, and including Mary Ann Weiss, Carolyn Ware and the Rev. Robert Kirkpatrick, which has worked since the close of the 2003 convention to bring this slate forward. The nominating form included this statement: “Each person of faith engages in many forms of ministry. We assume your convictions of faithfulness are in place and your faithfulness is not in question. The question is: what special competencies, skills, church or life experience do you have that you believe are relevant to serving in the position for which you are being nominated?” Nominees were asked for statements of 50 words or less, which may have been edited for the paper if they exceeded that limit. The bottom line of faithfulness of these nominees is paralleled by the bottom line that this local emphasis on the ordering of our faith community is a part of the life of faithful Anglicans everywhere, and heightens our sense of connectedness throughout our communion.

KCM

The editor can be e-mailed at kcollierm@diolex.org

Prev | Next