Wise Men Still Seek Him

    This video produced by the LDS Church is one of the best portrayals of  the Navtivity I have ever seen.  I am in awe of the faith that Mary, Joseph, the sheperds, the Wise Men, and the Savior. That God Himself (according to the words of Abinadi) would come down and condescend below all things is more than humbling to contemplate. That Mary, a young unmarried girl, would have the faith to accept the word of the angel and bear God's Son is awe inspiring. That Joseph would take on the responsiblity of raising a child and becoming a father to a child that wasn't his own biologically more than reveals his heart. That the sheperds would immediatly leave their flocks to see the newborn King is worth celebrating over! But it is the portrayal of the wise man that moved me. The faith he had to follow a star for two years to see the Redeemer that for him was yet to come!  I pray to God I may have that kind of faith.

    I am reminded of a talk I heard a while back regarding this kind of faith, expressed in the person of the Brother of Jared: 

       "I want to remind you the account that we are reading in the record of Ether, occurred before Christ came. Christ was a future expectancy, not an historical figure from the past. The faith exhibited by the brother of Jared in this account is faith in an unfilled future expectancy. If you think you have a thin basis for your faith in Christ because you didn't live in His day, think about how difficult it would be to have confidence in a Redeemer whose life was still future. The  details of the date and time of His birth were unknown. The circumstances of Him coming into mortality, the ministry and the sermons that He delivered, the sacrifices and the healings He gave during mortality, the temptations He faced, the dilemmas He confronted, all were unknown and unaccomplished. You know a great deal concerning Him now. None of that was known at the time the book of Ether was composed. 

    You have greater evidence. You have a greater testimony in front of you concerning Christ, than did this man. You have greater reason to believe in Christ, than did this man. You have far more witnesses and justification for having confidence in the promises of Christ. You unlike him, have the New Testament, you have the Book of Mormon including his record in front of you. You have Joseph Smith's revelations and Joseph Smith's testimony. You have the temple rites, with their ceremonial depiction of the return back into the presence of the Lord through the veil. You have restored again to you, partially, the Book of Enoch in the Pearl of Great Price. You have restored to you, a far more complete account of Abraham's testimony in the Pearl of Great Price. And you have a great deal more of the corrected account of Moses in the Pearl of Great Price. Therefore, when you read this third chapter of the Book of Ether, you should recognize you come to this challenge with a significantly greater collection of advantages, if you will receive them and use them, than the one who composed the record Moroni abridged here." (A Broken Heart and Contrite Spirit)

       These words humble me and wound my pride. How faithless I seem  compared to the ones who went before me! And yet, Christ still offers the promise: "Verily thus says the Lord: It shall come to pass that every soul who forsakes their sins, and comes unto me, and calls on my name, and obeys my voice, and keeps all my commandments, shall see my face and know that I am, and that I am the true light that lights every man who comes into the world, and that I am in the Father and the Father in me, and the Father and I are one..." (D&C 93:1/T&C 93:1) 

    I will seek the Lord with all my heart with the hope that some day soon I, like the wise men, shall kneel before him, and feel the wounds in his hands, feet and side. May we all have the faith of the wise men- to seek His face- no matter the cost and no matter how long the journey may be. For this is Life Eternal: "that they might know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." (LDS John 17:3/ RE John 9:19)