Today's Passage: Matthew 2

The story of the Magi is one that almost everyone has heard.  We have all seen countless nativity displays depicting three men dressed in brightly colored clothes offering gifts to the Christ child.  These depictions however paint a very different picture than what is found in scripture.

Matthew is the only gospel that includes this story.  So what you and I read today is the only information we have about these Magi.  The rest of the story that we have come to know is embellishment.  I say all of this because there is a very important message found in this story that is lost when we combine it with the nativity story.

In this chapter there are two different people with two different motives looking for Jesus, the Magi and Herod.  Both had a general knowledge of who the Christ was but with two different perspectives.  The Magi saw Jesus as the coming King from God that He was.  They probably didn't understand exactly what that meant but they believed in Him.  Herod on the other hand was the king and for another king to appear without him knowing meant a loss of control.  So Herod searched for Jesus only to take away His power.

In life we all fall into one of three catigories:

1) We aren't even aware that Jesus exists (Which if you're reading this then you probably don't fall into this one.)
2) We know Jesus exists but see a relationship with Him as loosing our own control over life, so we won't do it.
3) We know Jesus exists and that He is the son of the creator God.  And because of this we desire to bring Him honor and glory everyday through our lives.

I encourage you this week to stop a couple times each day and ask yourself who is in control, me or God?  It will change the way you make decisions from here on out. God bless and have a great day!