T.S. Elliot "The Journey of the Magi"

This weekend I have been spending some time reading this timeless poem by T.S. Eliot, "The Journey of the Magi".

It's the weekend before Christmas and I am spending all my time this week thinking about God becoming a man. I spend a lot of my time thinking about Jesus being God and it's all good, but this weekend I have found a renewed sense of wonder as I have been looking at the baby Jesus, who is God!

T.S. Eliot's poem is truly something something we all should file away and read on a contiual basis, not just at Christmas. A lot of work has been done trying to interpret this poem, here is one example.

Here's where God is growing my heart for the God-man, Jesus, as I reflect on this poem. The last part of the poem has really caught my attention.

"were we led all that way for Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly, We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death, But had thought they were different; this Birth was Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death, We returned to our places, these Kingdoms, But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation, With an alien people clutching their gods. I should be glad of another death."

There is something about encountering God, even God as a baby, that causes us to realize that we are at the end of ourselves. "Like Death, our death..." And it's a weird paradox, that we have to come to the end of ourselves to find ourselves. I think this is why so many in our day struggle with the call of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The day we encounter Jesus we have to give up making the story all about us, and start making the story all about Him! We have to choose death to self, to be born in Him. We ask the question above, "were we led all that way for Birth or Death?" If we choose death(which is really birth), then the challenge begins, to continue to be "glad of another death," to die to the story in this life being all about ME and make it all about Him for as many days as I have left on this Earth!

After this baby grew into THE MAN, He said something that has been on the front of my mind almost everyday of my life since I decided to die in Him...

Mark 8:34-37 - "34Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? 37Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?"

It doesn't matter if you see Him as a newborn, or hear Him speak the words, all who encounter Him will find and end to themselves and a beginning to themselves in Him. And no words can fully describe how this happens in the heart of those whom He has created.