Today we celebrate the arrival of the wisemen bearing gifts for the child king Jesus. And as we begin the new year let’s take to heart the ending of their story: “ Having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.”

In the new year let us beware of simply returning to the stock answers of the self-aggrandizing worldly powers of “Herod”.  Now is the time to take “another road”.  As the wisemen found their way to the child-gift through perseverance and faith-bound divine guidance, that same perseverance blessed by receiving the gift of God’s blessing would guide them on the next leg of their journey.  Not returning, but taking another road.  The wisdom of giving – ourselves, our gifts, our being – is evident in the ancient story.  God is revealed to those who give.