I once lived in Las Vegas.  I sketched portraits in many hotels and casinos. The name Las Vegas means The Springs, and across the harsh dessert landscape there are areas that were an oasis with lfe-giving water and even trees with shade.  As settlers headed to California they planned on these natural rest stops and needed their water resources for human and animal refreshment and later for replenishing the tanks of the steam locomotives. 

I often thought about what it was like to make such a journey.  Not too many opportunities exist for us to replicate their perseverance and drive. We might artificially create a vacation of hiking and an endurance type of activity, but it never quite approximates the real anxiety of travel back then, when one hoped for a running spring but never really knew until they were there whether they might live or die!

So I extend that anxiety to the Magi, whoever they were, however many there were, as they are told to have traveled and headed east probably across unknown territory and through lands with strange people and customs. Some think of them as three in number, a tradition given by the listing of three gifts --but there could have been a multitude of magi, all risking a great deal to observe what the star directed them toward.

Our Advent can be like that magi procession --if we will allow it, and not rush too fast toward Christmas. I'm confident we will get to the manger --aren't you? But most likely we need to rest along this Advent way. You probably could use an oasis and the refreshment of the natural spring and waters that bring life. What some people miss is that this season, these seasons, actually, are a journey of the soul. One step at a time! -Pastor Jack