Shining Brightly

As a Moravian I have a thing about the star at Christmas. The Paint Shop Pro manipulated picture as the pic of the month on the right is but one of many examples of the star and its place. We Moravians know, of course, that the star was there for the Magi, not the shepherds and that to use it as an Advent symbol doesn't fit the season.

Or does it?

And why can't it be used?

After all many of the symbols we use for Christmas (and Easter for that matter) are not necessarily Biblical images. Pine trees and Easter Eggs (or Nativity eggs in some places!) are meant to be things that we learn from about the season. They become "cultural" icons- openings within our own culture that can lead us to worship more deeply and be touched more fully by the God we have come to adore.

I was struck by this again this morning in church when the choir sang an anthem that had a magnificent repeating line in it:

We are the music of the morning star.

I don't know where it came from or what the composer meant by it. I do know that as I sat there and listened and looked up at the Star over the chancel, that I knew it meant something for me. I knew that for me- and for all of us who call ourselves by His Name- we are part of a great chorus that produces music. Music is more than just notes strung together or words arranged in some rhythm. Music is a universal, yet culturally-based expression of something that goes beyond words and deeper than feelings. It is, I firmly believe, at the center of the soul and can express the soul's longings as well as promises.

Like the star it goes in all directions. Like the star it is a guiding light. It is not the star- nor the music itself- that we are to worship. It is the one to whom it points, the one whose life it illuminated in that long-ago birth of a Savior.