The Who’s Who of Christmas

Editorial by José L. Vázquez

Many are familiar with the Who’s Who book, published every year to highlight the best individuals in their fields. To be listed in such a prestigious book is a great accomplishment. If they were alive today, explorers like Marco Polo, Ferdinand Magellan, and Lewis and Clark would surely make the list, each having planted a flag in the soil of history.

When we think of the Christmas story, we recognize the “Who’s Who” list: Jesus, Mary, Joseph, Anna and Simeon. Yet the wise men, who are forever linked to the story, are missing from that roll call by name. These seemingly important and wealthy men accomplished something worthy of recognition, but Matthew never even tells us who they were.

The wise men’s journey was long, arduous and dangerous. Scholars believe they came from ancient Babylon, traveling 800 to 1,000 miles—a trip that likely took months, with no GPS to guide them. Instead, a star led the way. Their own testimony says, “For we have seen His star in the East” (Matt. 2:2, NKJV). Today, that star reminds us to look up for God’s help and direction.

Obstacles filled the wise men’s path, yet they stayed steadfast until they reached their goal. They had no planes, trains, cars or bicycles, and no paved roads. Often, they had to take the road less traveled, risking robbery at every turn. No Holiday Inns awaited them; they rested by a tree or on a mountainside, enduring the day’s heat and the night’s chill. Still, they pressed on, encouraged by prophecies recorded in the Hebrew scrolls: “The travelers beguiled the hours by repeating traditional sayings and prophetic utterances concerning the One they sought. At every pause for rest they searched the prophecies” (Ellen White, The Desire of Ages, p. 60). Our own journey with God may be littered with obstacles, but He wants us to keep going and never give up. The path God sets before us is never in vain; a promised blessing waits at the end.

No video clip captured the wise men entering Mary and Joseph’s house, but sanctified imagination can help us picture the scene: no royal guard at the entrance, no golden trumpets announcing their arrival, no throne or rich incense—for they came with one purpose: to worship. “They saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him” (Matt. 2:11, NKJV).

The names of the wise men may never have made it into the Who’s Who book, but their story made it into a far greater book: the Bible. We may not know who they were, but we know what they did. They looked up, they pressed on and they worshipped the newborn King. May we do the same this Christmas and every day of our lives.

José L. Vázquez is the vice president for Ministries Development and the Ministerial director for the Columbia Union Conference.