Shining Stars

Shining Stars

By Touching Lives 

“Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation. Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life.” Philippians 2:15-16a

Matthew 2:1 says that the Wise Men came from the East, which literally means, “The rising of the sun.” Most Biblical scholars agree that they came from modern-day Iraq (Babylon). Coming due west from Babylon to Jerusalem is a journey of about 550 miles. Assuming that they traveled by camels, that trip would have taken approximately 28-37 days going at an average rate of 15-20 miles a day. As they made their way from their eastern homeland to the capital city of Judea they were on a mission to find this newborn King of the Jews. They had no map, no address, and couldn’t even ask anyone who had made this journey before. They were strangers going to a strange land.

From the beginning, these Wise Men would have been hopelessly lost if it were not for one thing. They had only one thing to offer hope that they would eventually arrive to see this newborn Messiah – it was the light. Whatever this star was, it stood out from every other astronomical glow found anywhere in the sky, with its brilliance even visible by day. It was all they had to follow, but it was also all they needed to follow. Mile after mile, day after day, their only hope was to follow the light of that special star.

Think about this…from the time those men left their home, they couldn’t see Jesus. They could only see the light that would lead them to Him. Had that light quit shining at any time during their journey, they would have been lost. If that star had refused to shine, they never would have found Jesus.

God created that specific star for a specific reason – to shine brilliantly and lead those men to Christ. If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, that is your number one purpose as well. Jesus is the Star of the show, but we are to be stars shining through the darkness in the way we live, act, and talk so that people will see the light of Jesus in us. We were created to shine the way to Jesus.

Father, Help me to live my life in a way that shines Your light and leads people to Jesus. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.