For reasons doctors knew best, Kevin our boy when born, was immediately shifted to the neonatal intensive care unit. Prior to him, within a year gone by, my wife had a miscarriage and we were still wheeling out of the trauma. So, you may well imagine the fears that buffeted us with the pregnant future of our newly born.  I vividly remember that intense emotion that kept my heart pounding and my eyes yearning to peek through that rectangular pane on the door of that NICU as many times as I was allowed to; and that glimpse of that little bundle of flesh swaddled in that cradle! Oh the joy of sighting those starry eyes staring as if at the heavenly angels gesturing ‘bon-voyage’. This spectacle which I saw from outside that atmosphere had instantly illuminated a hitherto unknown expanse in my heart; a father’s heart. There were many other babies that surrounded him that day, but my eyes were on him; only on him. He was special. He was mine.

It is with an intense affection that God called his people Israel as His very own! As He glanced at the many men living on the earth, on that particular day He fixed His eyes on one man – Abraham.  And the calling of Israel as His son becomes fully established when Israel is taken out of Egypt. (Ex. 4:23) He chose Israel because He wanted them – and through them, the whole world – to be redeemed. He took them out because He wants to dwell with them (Ex. 25:8). But before He must dwell with them, they must be sanctified. As Ravi Zacharias writes, “in the Christian faith alone you have a sequence of three: redemption, righteousness, and worship.” 

Although Israel had experienced how the Lord their God carried them just as a father would carry his son, they perpetually failed to reciprocate appropriately. They have deserted Him at the slightest of provocations.   Moses was hardly gone for 40 days and they ended up changing their allegiance to a calf which they deified as god. So much so that in Exodus, God laments through the prophet, “For this is rebellious people - false-sons, sons who refuse to listen to the instructions of the Lord.” However, despite their stubbornness of heart, God established a temporary ritual of offering sacrifices as a means for them to access Him.

Mankind universally recognized that God is great and humans are small. God is perfect but they were flawed. Temples and shrines made efforts to bridge the gap. Sacrifices and offerings were made and rituals observed by “mediators” (priests) who sought to bring the remote divinity near. After all, God was God and human beings mortal flesh. For who among us would directly look at the sun with our eyes? The glory of it would immediately overwhelm and destroy our sight.

The human fallibility exposed the inevitability for the prerogative to provide for their redemption to remain with God. He told Abraham, “I will provide the lamb for the burnt offering” (Genesis 22:8). And true to his promise, in the fullness of time, He gave His son, a perfect sacrifice for the redemption of mankind! (John 3:16). Hence, while religion says, ‘do’ and ‘keep doing’, the Christian worldview says, ‘Done’, and ‘it is finished’. 

As one may see the flames, colors and the glory of the blazing sun through filters, one could now see the glory of God through Jesus. That is one of the many reasons that Christians make their prayers accessible when they pray ‘in the name of Jesus’. I wonder, if you have ever thought of Jesus’ statement in John 14:6 - ‘I am way, the truth and the light’ in this perspective. No one qualifies to provide us the access to the Father (HOLY GOD) except Jesus, by Himself being our way, pointing to the Truth while illuminating our path with His light. 

The greatest news that has ever been broken to the human race is the news that God is like Christ. 

In other words,Jesus is the highest expression of God we have ever seen!  

As followers of Christ, how are we to live out this greatest expression of God? 

The Greece said, “Be moderate—know thyself”; Rome said, “Be strong—order thyself”; Confucianism says, “Be superior—correct thyself”; Shintoism says, “Be loyal—suppress thyself”; Buddhism says, “Be disillusioned—annihilate thyself”; Hinduism says, “Be separated—merge thyself”; Mohammedanism says, “Be submissive—assert thyself”; Judaism says, “Be holy—conform thyself”; Modern Materialism says, “Be industrious—enjoy thyself”; Modern Dilettanteism says, “Be broad—cultivate thyself”; Christianity says, “Be Christlike—give thyself.” (1)

E. STANLEY Jones writes, "When India, a non-Christian nation, wanted to pay her highest compliment to her highest son, she searched for the highest term she knew and called Gandhi a Christlike man." 

During this season, may we turn our attention to the eternal mystery that was decrypted on that cross. Christ, the lavish gift of God can be meditated upon year after year; yet it would forever leave us to wonder in amazement. And as we meditate on that cross, let’s anticipate the victory of the light and the life of Christ over the darkness of sin and death. Let us live grateful lives for His redeeming grace in the face of our frailty. Having access to God through Jesus, we may now offer ourselves as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God. While our salvation cost us nothing, we are called to work out of our security in Christ. While God, through His Son Jesus calls you - His very own, would we not do everything in our ability to embrace him and become - Christlike 

In ‘The Pursuit of Happyness’, an American biographical drama film based on the entrepreneur Chris Gardner, the protagonist (played by Will Smith) makes a living by selling bone-density scanners. Doctors wouldn’t buy those machines as they were apparently only a little better than the X-ray machines, yet very expensive. Consequently, Chris loses his apartment and his wife leaves him, forcing him on to the street with his 5-year-old son, Christopher. The story is all about Chris’ pursuit of happiness. The movie resonates with a lot of us because life in itself is a pursuit. Some pursue education while some pursue wealth. Some pursue a vocation or a hobby while others pursue a career. We all pursue ‘knowledge’ in different forms. The dictionary defines ‘Pursuit’ as an action word: an action of pursuing ‘someone’ or ‘something’; an act of chasing or an act of striving to accomplish something.

The Bible narrates the story of a few astrologers who were pursuers. When the Magi, perhaps in this case Zoroastrian dualists – mostly polytheists – sighted that bright and mysterious Star lodged in the Western side of their skies, their life-time pursuit for complex knowledge in the area of Astrology seemed to be culminating in a new pursuit – a pursuit for the Truth.  Interestingly, God gives each of us signs that we understand in order to lead us to the Truth. In this instance, for the Magi of the East – it was a Star. God spoke their language.

BEGINNING OF A PURSUIT

Astrology was considered as the science of the day by the ancient world. It was believed, particularly in the East, that the placement and displacement of stars would affect the future of Man. The strange thing is that, just about the time Jesus was born, there was in the world a strange sentiment of expectation of the arrival of a great king. Even the Roman historians mentioned this in their writings. The Roman historian Suetonius wrote, “There had spread over all the Orient an old and established belief, that it was fated at that time for men coming from Judaea to rule the world.” Tacitus mentions of the same belief that “there was a firm persuasion … that at this very time the East was to grow powerful, and rulers coming from Judaea were to acquire universal empire.”

Incidentally, the closest star to the Earth is the Sun which can be reached in a little more than 8 minutes at the speed of light. As for other stars, ‘Proxima Centauri’ was considered to be the closest and its light can reach the Earth in 4 years and 2 months. So for the ‘Christmas’ Star to have shone at the right moment for the Magi to notice, it must have begun shining at least 4 years prior to its sighting.  It’s amazing that God had initiated His work enough in advance so that the Magi would sight it precisely at the time of the birth of Jesus Christ.

Today, God continues to reveal Himself to people of various pursuits in different ways. The pursuit of Truth can and will be found in any and every discipline whether it be science or the arts. This fact speaks volumes on the pursuit of God to connect with man.

CONTINUING THE PURSUIT

Often times when a research is undertaken in a university, the researcher is asked to come up with a hypothesis. Through various processes and tools, the researcher is expected to arrive at a conclusion. Most researchers have an inkling or at least, a faint clue of the intended conclusion and they pursue it. But imagine if the tables are turned on him and the investigation points contrary to his hypothesis after an awfully long process of study. Here is where, I think the researcher’s integrity is put to test. Would he or she camouflage facts in order to prove his or her point or would he or she be willing to be led wherever the truth will lead? Would he or she be able to defend the findings with honesty and absolute truthfulness, although the research has yielded an unexpected finding altogether?

As the star specified a king born in Judea, the wise men naturally expected to find him in Jerusalem’s palace. However, their search brought them to a wrong conclusion. King Herod himself consults his wise men and finds out that the prophets of old had predicted specifics of the very place of birth of Jesus.  And the Magi continue their journey in the pursuit of Truth. They weren’t disappointed with the embarrassment because of the apparent failure of their ‘knowledge’; but they were bold and honest enough to extend the journey of their pursuit despite the discomfort to their egos and ethos. They followed the evidence until the end, until it brought them face-to-face with the Truth.

In your pursuit of the Truth, may I ask – would you have the integrity to stay on course till the end? What if the ‘knowledge’ that you have been holding-on to very proudly actually meets the ‘dead-end’ sign in the middle of your pursuit? Will you be ready to honestly continue with your pursuit?

CULMINATION OF THE PURSUIT

On arriving at the house, the Magi saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped Him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Prostration was, in fact, a way that Persians venerated rulers as well as deities. When they recognised this was no ordinary child, they did not mind falling on their knees in worship. The culmination of an honest pursuit of Truth is always worship.

It was the pursuit of Truth that culminated for C.S. Lewis, the most reluctant convert in all of England in 1929 when, alone in that room at Magdalen, he made the commitment. He writes, “Night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. I gave in and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.”

May I encourage you to be relentless in the pursuit of Truth while earnestly staying on course the pursuit that beckons you! The eternal Pursuer of Man will surely let your feet stumble upon some  threads that will eventually lead you to the ultimate pursuit of Truth. And until you figure out that Truth, keep deriving your conclusions honestly and boldly. Praying that as you begin your pursuit and continue it, you would not falter at the crucial stage of the culmination of that pursuit.