MISSING THE STAR

Those with Ring are familiar with Neighbor Alerts. Someone in your proximity that also has a Ring door Doorbell can, when something unusual happens, post an alert on Ring, and it will notify all Ring owners around him. Really, more than a neighborhood watch network, it is more a modern equivalent to a neighborhood gossip network, the local grapevine. This week I received a notification in the night—one I did not look at until morning. A neighbor had sent a video captured by his Ring at his front door. I could hardly watch because I was offended by two things in his accompanying message: “Whos old lady is this.” First, there was the misspelled “whos.” It should be “whose.” Then there was the “old” describing lady. She appeared ten or more years younger than I. Though put off by the description, my curiosity was piqued enough to watch the video anyway. Ringing the alerter’s doorbell was a lady wrapped in a blanket. The vapor from her breath revealed how cold the night was. She fidgeted, shifting from one foot to the other, turning to look behind and around her, as she waited for someone to answer the door. The resident, if at home at the time, did not. Finally, she left. I scrolled down through the thread of comments beneath the clip. Neighbors (numbers have been changed to protect the innocent) messaged: Neighbor 1: “People are going around like this claiming they need help…when you open the door their partner in crime rushes you to rob you.” Neighbor 2: “She may be looking for help.” Neighbor 3: “Doesn’t appear to be in any distress.” Neighbor 4: “Call the police.” Neighbor 5: “She may need help.” There were more. Then, in the thread, there was this: Neighbor 9: “See the shooting star @ 1:19?” Shooting star? I hadn’t seen it. I re-watched the clip. There it was streaking across the sky! This homeowner’s front door Ring captures the horizon beyond the street. Over half of the view is skyline with a two-story house framing the right side and distant city’s lights dividing the street and its paralleled lawns from the night sky. As the woman gives up on anyone answering the door and walks away, there on the left side of the screen a shooting star can be seen blazing a trajectory across the dark sky. I am certain that other viewers of the clip had been like I; absorbed in the lady and what she was doing, I had totally missed the shooting star—something, if seen, is a sensational phenomenon to observe. How many people are so absorbed in the daily busy but humdrum activity of life or the personal dilemmas and difficulties that are right in front of them that they miss the phenomenal also happening in that moment’s frame? How many now? How many then? Once, long ago, God positioned a heavenly phenomenon in the sky. We could argue over exactly what it was, but it was extraordinary enough that it caught the astrologer/astronomers’ attention. Others may not have seen it; the Magi did. More probably, many did notice it, but a precursory glance was sufficient for them. They were too busy with life right in front of them to be curious or interested enough to contemplate much less investigate the star God had lit and hung in the sky. They saw but did not follow. The magi did. They not only noticed, but they also fixed their observant interest on it. They also followed it. It led them to Christ. Looking beyond the immediate, seemingly urgent and demanding they saw the star. Interested they investigated, and, following, they found. They found the Messiah, the Prince of Peace, the Life-changer, the Life-giver. The star led them to Jesus the Savior. Even today, many never see beyond the foreground activity demanding their attention. Their lives are absorbed in what is immediately before them, in their view--the fidgeting woman, not the star. The temporal gets noticed but not the eternal. The material but not the spiritual. The pressing, not the prescient. The extemporaneous, not the lasting. The prosaic, not the phenomenal. The chaotic, not the Christ. The problem, not the Prince of Peace. It is no different during this current Christmas season than when the star appeared in the Magi’s time--only we now have the One to whom the star led them! The One called the Daystar. He’s no fleeting shooting star or temporary Wisemen’s star. He’s the risen, forever Star. Will you and I see beyond the seasonal celebratory activity happening all around us to notice Him? Will you arouse others to notice Him asking, “Did you see the Daystar? There is much happening in our world that is disturbing, troubling. We ask, “What is happening? What is going on?" Yet, with all those questions, we can yet see the star. As another neighbor responded to the alert, “I don’t know who the lady is but the star is neat!,” I don’t know or understand all that is happening in our world, but the Star is really neat! Don’t miss it. --Pastor Clifford Hurst