The Bethlehem Star

I was intrigued to hear this story on Fox News, "Scholar Suggests Sun, Moon, Planets Aligned to Create Biblical Star of Bethlehem." I am always fascinated when a Biblical story is proven by science. Evidently, I'm among the minority in thinking/knowing that December 25th held no Biblical significance. I'm afraid, I'm also odd in my belief that something can be supernatural and scientific. I guess that comes from believing in the Creator and His marvelous abilities!

I searched and searched for a picture of this nova, planet, comet, occultation, conjunction, whatever....but none are as great as my imagination. There was some pretty interesting stuff out there though! It was so neat to read this around this time of year. One article talks about how the wise men could have seen the "constellation" rise in the sky...and then followed its' movement. Fascinating!

On a side note, I'm a bit of a nut where the wise men are concerned anyway. I firmly believe that they weren't present at Christ's birth. In Matthew 2:11, it specifically called Jesus a "young child" upon their arrival. Other evidence would be the fact that evil King Herod has all babies killed under the age of 2 (Matthew 2:16). As a mother, that just makes my heart cry. All that to say, I don't like to see the wise men next to the baby in nativity scenes. In our house...they are across the room on the bookshelf. In case you're wondering the space between the piano and bookshelf is a span of a few years! Ha ha ha!

Also, any ideas what they did with the gold, frankincense and myrrh? I'd like to research what those things were used for in biblical times. Gold...easy enough...monetary. I wonder if they could be used in sacrifices. I was chit chatting as I got my teeth cleaned yesterday (already the wheels of this blog were turning) and my dental hygienist suggested that maybe they could use the spices to smell better...'cuz they didn't bathe as often back then. Interesting.

Hope this story comes alive to you this year. Re read the story if you haven't in a while. I've heard it a bunch...but it was different this year!