Let me tell you another story this Christmas Day.  It's also fiction, like the one I told last night, but perhaps we'll learn something from it.  It's about a small band of travellers long ago, leaving their home and the old ways, and moving to somewhere new.  It's also about an old man whose vision perplexed them all.

          Their fire was small and they huddled close.  "We must go now," said the boy.  "There is no more wood for burning.  Our crops are thin and when the snows come, the wild ones will come again and will kill us."  "Where will we go?" Small Sister and Mother asked, for drought was everywhere and with no better place they knew of, would it not be better to stay here and die?

          The Old One stirred and mumbled, "In my sleep I saw them, strange men on beasts."  "He is old and his mind wanders," said their mother.  "Strange men with robes that shine," continued Old One.  "How many men?" the boy asked, wondering if they, too, would be dangerous.  "Two, maybe three, no more," Old One said, "sitting on beasts."  The ramblings of an old man, they all thought.  They soon must leave or die, and it was better to die while doing than sitting.  There was no food - even the rats had gone.  "When light comes, we shall go," said the boy.  "What of the Old One?  He is weak," said Small Sister.  "They followed the path, where there was no path, a path of light," said Old One.  "He will come with us," said the boy.

          On the third day they ran out of water.  The boy dug for water in the sand.  They ate of the corn they carried, but not all, for some would be seed for planting, if they found a new home.  Snow in the night gave more water and the next day they kept walking.  Here and there seeds could be found to eat.  "Where do we go?" Small Sister asked.  The boy did not know where, and he was afraid.  On the ninth day they ate the last of the corn except the seed.  The boy snared a squirrel and a lizard, and their mother dug roots by a spring.  They had left their home forever, the last of their kind, those who would one day be called Anasazzi.

          Things change in life.  People, customs, even values change.  Our world cannot remain the same, because things change.  We no longer travel by donkey, and we no longer live on farms.  Thankfully, we are not occupied by Romans and we enjoy things that make life far easier than Mary and Joseph had it.

          And yet our way of life lacks some of the community that held it together.  We today live close but we don't know our neighbors.  With all our technology we have even less spare time.  And what we have we often use foolishly.  Even our churches change, and we pray God it is always for the better.  We, too, are leaving the past behind, even at a time of year like Christmas.

          The little band plodded on and the cold grew.  It snowed and did not melt, and Old One lagged farther behind, taking longer each day to reach the evening fire.  The boy hardly looked at their eyes now, for he had nothing to promise them.  "They followed a path of light," Old One muttered as he drew the worn blanket about his thin shoulders.  "We have seen no path, Old One," said the boy.  "The path was light because they heard and they believed," Old One said.  "Heard what?  Believed what?" asked the boy.  "I do not know, only that they believed," said Old one.  "I believe we are lost," said Small Sister.  Mother looked at the boy.  He was now the man, but only a small man, and alone.

          Old One arose.  "Come," he said, and the boy followed.  "There!" he pointed, "There lies the path."  "I see no path," said the boy, "Only a star."  "The star is the path if you believe," said Old One.  He went back to the fire and left the boy alone in the dark.  The others had trusted him, but he had found nothing.  They had faith but now he had none.  He had led them into a wilderness, and for what?  There was no place for planting, little food and water, no fuel.

          We often come to a place in life when we question our decisions.  Should we have married this person?  Should we have chosen that vocation?  Are we going in the right direction, and if not, what can we do?  Mary and Joseph could not have felt sure of everything that was happening.  They, too, must have questioned what they were doing and where they were going.

          Even when we are close to God, sin keeps us from doing the right thing.  That's why we must all stay close together, close to the Lord, every day, in every way.  Now more than ever we must preserve the treasure of the Gospel.  We must try to love each other as God loves us.  We must not abandon what is good for what is popular.

          The Old One said they followed a star, thought the boy, so he would follow a star, one still bright in the morning light.  When morning came, they made ready to leave, but the Old One would not move.  "It is enough.  I can go no farther," he said.  "But you will come," said the boy.  "You taught me to have faith, and now you, too, must have it."  And so they all moved as one, day following day and night following night and the boy following a star.

          Soon Small Sister and Mother said, "We can go no further," so the boy put them in a place of cottonwood trees where there was a water seep and branches for fuel.  He snared a small animal and cooked it for them.  When light came he shouldered his pack and left them, but out of their sight, he sat down and put his head in his hands.  He had failed them.  Old One's medicine had failed.  Where would they go?  He had followed the star, but for what?

          As He walked on, his head was filled with dark thoughts and soon he tripped and fell.  And there before him on the ground were tracks of a deer and a raccoon.  Deer would give them food and clothing.  Raccoon liked water.  Not in two months had he seen animal tracks!  He followed the tracks into a small valley and found a pool of water.  He drank deeply and went quickly back to the others.  He brought them to the place and said, "This is our home.  We will stop here."

          It's such a gift from God when you realize where your heart is, and where you want to be.  Looking can be adventuresome, but finding is what we really want.  Finding a home with the right person, finding the right job with the right benefits, finding the right church, finding yourself when you've been lost.  This is finding home.  Mary and Joseph found home in a stable, or a small house.  The Holy Family found home wherever they went, even in a foreign country.  When God is with us, and His love follows us, we need never be without a home.

          The boy killed a deer, and as they ate, he asked, "Old One, who sat upon the beasts in your dream, and what did they find following the star?"  "A cave that smelled of animals where a baby lay on dry grass.  The father and mother were there and other men, wearing skins."  "And the shining ones who sat on the beasts?  What of them?"  Old One said quietly, "They knelt before the baby and gave it gifts."  "It is a strange dream," said the boy.  "At another time I will listen to it again."

          "The star is the path if you believe."  I have always loved this short story by Louis Lamour, partly because the words of the old man fascinate me: "The star is the path if you believe," he said.  Those words have a message for us all.  If we trust what we cannot see, and in words backed by God Himself, we will find our home.  We will know where we are going, God will help us along the way.

          We believe in a loving God, a forgiving God, and we trust Him to show us the way through life, so how can we go wrong?  When we hold the hand of the Powerful One in the universe, we have everything to gain.  But if we don't believe there is a God, and He does exist, we have everything to lose.

          "The star is the path if you believe."  Perhaps like those ancient travellers, we, too, are wondering about our future.  We may be wondering why there is so much change around us, whether it is good, and whether we will be able to adjust to it.  Perhaps we can't understand why so much change has already happened, and maybe we fear what will happen next.  This is how humanity has wondered ever since the Garden of Eden when sin entered into the world.

          "The star is the path if you believe."  The Magi in shining robes travelled far on beasts when they weren't sure what they would find.  How could they know a new king was born, and why did they come to Jerusalem?  They weren't Jews or believers, only pagan astrologers.  They must have read the Old Testament, but how could they see its promise that a Jewish king would be born?  And even if they knew all this, why would they care?  Was it their hobby, to go around checking out newborn babies to see if this one might be special?

          More importantly, what is God telling us through the journey of the Magi?  I believe it's in the words of the old man, "The star is the path if you believe."  We all follow a star, but it must be the right star.  Life is not just in getting, doing or spending. God bids us follow His star, the star that leads to Himself.

          God doesn't force us to follow His star.  He beckons us with its light, and at the end of our journey, He brings us out of the darkness of our sin and failure, and into the light of His mercy and love.  We can follow any star we choose, but the star - of Bethlehem - is the path, if we believe - in the Son of God.  May we all so believe, and be led to God, to His Son, to the place He has prepared for us all.  In Jesus' name, amen.

Copyright © 2004 by Pastor Bob Tasler.  All rights reserved.
(Abridged story from "Moon of the Trees on the Snow" by Louis Lamour)