Wonderings about Wise Wanderings

In December 2019, while participating in our church's Christmas on the Corner performances, I gained a new appreciation of Joseph in the Christmas story. You can read about it here.

Joseph, Mary, and Jesus
Photo credit: Henry Huey Photo
hueyphoto.com, @HenryHueyPhoto

This year, while participating again in the Christmas on the Corner performances, I yearned to have a deeper experience - to try to see the story from another perspective, whether it be that of the shepherds or the wise men.

I had a hard time focusing on either of these (unless I was at the performances), until my family visited White Sands National Monument in New Mexico on December 20, 2021. That's when I took these pictures.

White Sands National Monument, New Mexico

White Sands National Monument, New Mexico

Being surrounded by all the sand and the mountains, I thought about the wise men and what their journey in the Christmas story might have been like. The majority of the following poem was written as I stood atop a hill of sand, surveying our surroundings. This isn't anything deep or theological, but gave me a focus as I strive to keep Christ and His story at the center of my and my family's Christmas this year.

I wonder what it was like for the wise men

To cross hills and valleys of sand

To travel far from family and friends

And traverse a foreign land

To follow a star in the night sky

To stay on course in the day

To explain their journey to passersby

I wonder just what they would say.

And did the star disappear

Before they questioned the king?

Is that why they stopped in Jerusalem

And told him everything?

Then, when they left the palace

The star again appeared.

They hadn't lost their way

As they might have at one time feared.

And, finally, they met the child

While with his parents he sat

I wonder what Mary and Joseph felt.

Did the kings play with the child on the mat?

When they presented their gifts

Did they appear to be too much

For this boy and his simple family

How would they use the such?

Or did the gifts seem not enough?

Did the kings truly understand

That the child who played before them

Came to save and heal the land?

What was their trip home like?

Were they terrified by the dream?

What route did they choose to take

To avoid the king as he blew off steam?

What did they tell the people

When they arrived home at last?

What new paths did their lives take

After this trip had passed?

Joseph, Mary, and Jesus are visited by wise men from the East,
from the First Baptist Church of Round
Rock's Christmas on the Corner, December 2021
Photo Credit: Keith Mitchell, http://www.keithmitchell.photography