It is an old and well-known story, recounted anew each Christmas time,
that the Wise Men from the East were led to the cradle of the infant
Jesus by a star. That fact has taken a large place in Christian imagery
and symbolism. But of what is a star a symbol? It is suggestive of an
ideal. How appropriate that a star should have shown the world to the
cradle of one who set it thinking about ideals?
Jesus was a dreamer. His spiritual lineage ran far back into the life of
the Jewish race. The nature of Esau was such that wherever he went, he was
haunted by his physical desires. The nature of Jacob was such that
wherever he lay down at night, even though his head were pillowed upon a
stone, he dreamed of heaven and of angels. Jesus was of the line of Jacob.
He lived with His head among the stars.
He wasted no time in getting the current of idealism under way. He began
at once promoting the kind of thing the practical world calls impossible
because it is right. The night He was born angels sang of glory to God in
the highest, peace on earth, and good will among men. It was a warring and
hating world to which they sang, but their song was a note in the new
harmony He had come to establish.
This man who walked with His head among the stars did and said all kinds
of impractical things. He said a kingdom of happiness was at hand, but
that a man had to be born again in order to see it. He said the best way
to save one’s life was to lose it. He said one should treat others as he
wished them to treat him. He said one should love his neighbor as well as
he loved himself. He told a rich, young man to give away everything he had
and consecrate his life to service. The world is slowly catching the idea.
You cannot conquer an ideal. Some time it will win.
What was this ethereal, star-like dream that so commanded His life? It was
a race redeemed from its sin, ignorance, littleness, and woe. He saw how
His people were fettered by their own tendencies. He dreamed of a day of
freedom to be and achieve their best. And it will come. Some day the world
will be a picture of the vision of the Man who lived with His head among
the stars. The light of the Bethlehem star falls across the centuries
lighting the way to a new heaven and a new earth.