Unexpected Discoveries

It was around 1945 that George deMestral, a mountain-hiking botanist stopped to pull some burrs off his socks. Intrigued at their sticking power, he looked at the burrs under his microscope, and thought up Velcro. Looking for one thing and finding something better.

A family was wrapping all their Christmas presents. Julie, the man's 4½ year old daughter wanted to do something, too. When her father took the cover off a box and laid it off to the side, Julie took it. When a piece of silvered wrapping paper was discarded, she took that, too. Eventually she had enough of these cast-off scraps to go to her room, and with great concentration, wrapped a special gift for her daddy. The package didn't have the neatly folded corners of the other presents. Indeed, the box looked pretty strange and, I think, pretty special.

On Christmas morning, the family had gathered to distribute the plunder and rip open the wrappings. All the presents had been distributed, opened and ooohhhed over; all of them except that of the little girl, Julie. As sort of the supreme climax to the festivities, she scrambled behind the tree where she had hidden her present, and proudly presented it. "Daddy," she explained, "this is for you." Dad shook it. "Julie," daddy commented, "it's mighty light." Dad made some appropriate guesses about the gift: "Is it a Volkswagen? Is it a St. Bernard? Is it a bowling ball?" No, it was none of those things. Finally, with considerable care he opened it. Looking inside and finding nothing, he commented, "Julie the box is empty. I love what you did, but I'm confused, this is an empty box." "But Daddy, it's not empty. Before I wrapped your present, I blew the box full of kisses, and put into it all my love." The father had been looking for one thing, and wound up finding another; something quite finer than anything he might have imagined.

In a way, it is that sense of discovering the unexpected that makes Epiphany so interesting. Epiphany is a celebration which recalls how some time after Jesus was born, wise men, magi following a new heaven-sent star, showed up in Jerusalem to pay their respects to the next leader of the Jewish nation. Before we go any farther we might want to ask, who were these men? Some say they were Zoroastrian priests from Persia, which is now Iran. Some say they were magi from Babylon, which corresponds to modern-day Iraq. Either way, these people were great students of astronomy, medicine, religion. Either way, it would have taken them a fair amount of time and dedication and money to get to Jerusalem. That's where we find these wise men, in Jerusalem.

Being wise men, you might think that they would make good choices. Well, these wise men weren't quite wise enough. Wisdom had told them it was only natural that they should come to Jerusalem and check in at King Herod's palace. Where else, other than a palace, would you expect to find a newborn king? It was very logical. It was very sensible. It was also wrong. There was no newborn child in the palace. "So if He's not here, where should we look?" the wondering wise men wanted to know. That's when scholars were summoned, and the Scriptures were consulted.

After picking up some directions from God's inspired Word, the wise men set out again following the star, and found themselves standing before a small, unassuming home in Bethlehem, which was currently occupied by a Galilean carpenter, his wife Mary, and yes, a Baby Boy by the name of Jesus. Have you ever started a search for one thing and wound up with something else, something better? That's the story of the wise men! Have you ever started looking for the earthly and been led to the heavenly? That was the epiphany of these wise men. They were brought to something better, more beautiful, more unbelievable than they could have imagined. Whoever the wise men had come to see; they found the Christ, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords.

These magi might surprise us a little; they were not disappointed with what they found. Scripture tells us, these wise men rejoiced, and did not hesitate to fall down in humble adoration before the infant Jesus. These men who had seen so much of life, who had dedicated their lives to the accumulation of wisdom, did not consider themselves too grand, too elite, too self-sufficient to bow down and worship the Christ Child. These wise men considered it right to present their gifts, gifts which would become the precedent for all future Christmas presents.

We look for one thing, God supplies another. He does it all the time. The childless priest Zechariah set out to burn incense and ended up with a promise that his son would be the forerunner of the Savior. A Samaritan woman went to a well to draw water and found the Savior Who gave her forgiveness and a new path to walk. The tax collector Matthew, went to his booth to levy tolls upon travelers and was called to follow the Savior. The widow of Nain started a walk that would end with the burial of her only son; she met Jesus and received not just a living son, but a Savior who cared. The apostle Peter set out to catch some fish and he ended up fishing for souls. Paul had gone on a hunt for Christians and was called by the Christ to spend his days proclaiming Him . Mary Magdalene sat before an open tomb and started a search to find her Teacher's dead body; and most amazing of all, she saw her living, death-defeating Savior.

Time and again people search for one thing, and in Jesus find something, Someone, far better. Over the centuries, many people have been led to see the Savior. In the late 1970s a professional journalist for the Chicago Tribune, who was also an atheist, did an in-depth investigation of the life of Jesus, and to his surprise, emerged from his experience a believer in Christ. His name is Lee Strobel, and he has done much to advance the cause of Christ, writing such books as The Case for Christ.

No matter what our search, God wants to give us something better. Through his word, written in the Bible, God wishes to call us from our sins to the crucified and risen Christ. Whatever you’re looking for from God; he wants to give you the greatest gift of life lived in communion with him forever. He wants you to have the confidence of knowing that he has forgotten all your sins thanks to Jesus.

Today, no matter what you have been looking for, no matter where you are looking, the Holy Spirit wants you to see Jesus. Don't let the Babe of Bethlehem slip through your world unnoticed. Today, this day, let your eyes be lifted from the unimportant and see this great thing that the Lord has done for you; see the One Who has saved you, your soul, from the fires of eternal agony and anguish. As He did with the wise men, let the Lord lift your eyes from that which seems important and show you something better. Hear God say, as did little Julie, "The present is not empty. Christ's cradle is not empty. Look closely, wrapped in swaddling clothes is your Present. God has put in Him all His love."