Today is the Feast of the Epiphany. All those magi in your nativity sets should have made their way to the baby Jesus now.
I woke up singing one of my favorite Epiphany hymns, Bishop Reginald Heber's (1782-1826) beautiful Brightest and Best of Stars of the Morning:
Brightest and best of the stars of the morning,
dawn on our darkness and lend us your aid.
Star of the east, the horizon adorning,
guide where our infant redeemer is laid.
It appears that we pray to stars on this day! Even the refrain for We Three Kings: "O Star of Wonder, Star of Light... guide us to thy perfect light." I've never quite thought what it means to pray to a star, or that the tradition had made the Christmas star(s) divine. An interesting thought for this day of the great star and the greater light.
Happy Epiphany!
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