Click for audio: The Soul We Seek
The birth of Jesus, as we celebrate it in our Christmas tradition, is a combination of two stories that, taken separately, couldn’t be more different. Matthew (2:1-12), who was interested in portraying Jesus as the awaited king of the Jews, the prophesied Messiah, has wise men coming from the East following a star that signals this important birth and ultimately comes to rest over the house where Jesus was born. Luke (2:8-15) on the other hand, has the announcement of Jesus’ birth given first to shepherds by an angel in the night. The shepherds find the newborn, not in a house, but lying in a manger in a stable. Each writer was obviously appealing to two entirely different economic classes.
What these writers share in common is the location from which these announcements were made: the night sky. There is spiritual significance in this observation. During the day we see but a single star—the sun. On a clear night, we see countless more. In the light of day our focus turns almost entirely to schedules and all the many concerns we can squeeze into them. At night, with a sky full of stars above us, we are more likely to contemplate the fact that we live in a vast universe of infinite possibility.
Both Matthew and Luke portrayed the birth of Jesus as a world-changing event, an event that was announced, not from the busyness of broad daylight, but from the night heavens that stir the imagination in ways that cannot be fully grasped yet cannot be denied. Daylight, in this sense, represents the intellectual, logical mind that plans and schedules and calculates. The night sky represents the intuitive side of the mind that opens to the vastness of the soul and beyond.
For all our study, it is our intuitive exposure to our innermost being—our soul, our night sky—that brings the message of salvation. You and I are so much more than we think. The answers we chase in the broad daylight of our busy schedule are found in the deep stillness of the intuitive night. Here, the soul we seek lies fully exposed.