Matthew 2 - Thoughts

First off, I love that wise men visit Him. I love the distinction between wise men versus smart men. When we say someone is smart we generally mean they know a lot about something, or generally know about lots of things. So when the world terms someone as smart, or genius, generally we think of great scientists and mathematicians ... and yet so many of them don't believe in God. They may be smart but they are not wise.

Wise men and women seek the Christ. They follow the guiding stars that lead us to the Savior, and they know the signs of what to look for to lead us to Christ. Every good thing comes from God, and good things lead us to God and Christ. So if we cannot be smart and learned by the world's standards, at least we can be wise in God's eyes.

And if we are wise, being in tune with the Spirit, then we will recognize and heed the warnings of the Holy Ghost, just like the wise men, and Joseph, do in this chapter. I hope one day to be in tune with the Spirit enough to recognize spiritual promptings when I receive them. Sometimes I have a hard time distinguishing between my own thoughts and spiritual promptings, especially when it is something that I don't want to do.

Like sometimes, when people talk about our lives and potential I feel as though I need to go back to medical school, though I don't really want to anymore. Don't get me wrong, I would love to be a doctor, but there are more important things in my life (like my daughter, my husband, and my personal health) than being a doctor and a workaholic which it seems is required in order to become a doctor, at least until after residency. I never know if those thoughts and the Holy Ghost prompting me to go back, or just my own worries that I've messed something up in my life.

Becoming a wise woman is definitely a goal I'm striving for, though I fear that I often fall short of it at this present time. That's part of the reason we're doing family scripture study now, to help us learn of spiritual things more so that we will be more like the wise men in this chapter and better recognize the things of God in our lives.

Herod relies on scholars and smart men to tell him where Christ is and admittedly he does run into some wise men along the way, but he isn't motivated enough to actually go with them to find the Christ child, and we know his motives were not pure, though he didn't disclose that to the wise men. And so, because of his desire for power and greed and his lack of spiritual intuition he is unable to find that which he seeks.