Today is Day #2 in our "Dear Grand" series. All week I am sharing with you the answers to five questions about the Holiest of All Nights, the blessed Christmas Story. Each grandchild in our family asked their grandfather a question about the Nativity, and their sweet Grand was willing to take the time to answer not only for them, but for all of us as well.
Check back each day this week for the next question...and answer...and we pray you will be blessed by this sweet exchange between the generations of our family. Merry Christmas!
Robin Walls
Molly, age 7
Grand, why and how did the wise men follow the star? And why are they called “wise men”?
In the ancient world, with few written documents and even fewer iPads, those in power who wanted to understand their world sought insight in other ways. One of the strong beliefs prevalent in biblical times was that information about the future could be discerned by a careful study of the movement of the stars. And so many men in that era devoted their lives to astronomy and the best among them came to be known as “wise men”.
The wise men in the Bible, also called Magi from which we get our word magician, were men of these sort. Some highly unusual astronomical events took place around the time of Christ that led them to believe the stars were announcing the birth of a Jewish king. Some of these wise men might well have been of Jewish descent and perhaps came from the Jewish remnants of the Babylonian captivity.
They came to Judah to pay their respects to this new king. And wise men and women have been doing the same thing ever since.
Love, Grand
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