https://odb.org/2026/01/06/seeking-the-christ-child
Matthew 2:7–12 (NIV): 7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”
9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.
When writing teacher Peter Turchi sees a map, he looks for the adventure it holds. “To ask for a map,” he says, “is to say, ‘Tell me a story.’ ” I seized on that idea when preparing to teach a Sunday school class during Christmas on the “Faith of the Wise Men.” As I studied maps, I learned the Magi traveled some nine hundred miles—perhaps over several months—to find the Christ child, finally finding not a babe in a manger but a toddler living with His parents in a house. Their reaction after such a long trip? “They bowed down and worshiped him” (Matthew 2:11).
Distance didn’t deter their worship. Nor did danger or delays. Herod’s deadly demand was ironic: “Go and search carefully for the child” (v. 8). Nobody had searched more diligently for Jesus than the Magi. (Patricia Raybon, Our Daily Bread, 6th January 2026)
I always believed that if we seek God with all our heart, we will find Him as Jeremiah 29:13 proclaims. The reason, theologically, is simple – we were created by God in His image to fellowship with Him. So if we seek Him hard enough, we will surely find Him. He doesn’t play a game of hide and seek with us where He stays hidden until we find Him or does He dissappear once we are near. Instead the more we seek Him, the closer will He come near us and before long, we will be staring at Him right in front of us. The scales that blinded us from seeing and believing in Jesus will be lifted if we search for Him wih all our heart. Not the work of man, but the work of the Holy Spirit.
The thing is once we have gotten to know Jesus and accepted Him into our lives as Lord and Saviour, the mysteries of the Kingdom will be opened to us. The LORD will reveal Himself and His mysteries to us. So the more we read His Word, the more we will gain in our knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ and of God.
As we obey His Word, we will experience Him and mature in our faith and grow in our relationship with Him. So long as we persevere on, much will be gained by us of the spiritual realm. Perhaps we may experience what Paul saw and heard when he was brought unto the third heaven by Christ (2 Corinthians12:2-4). In first century Jewish thought, third heaven means beyond the first heaven (sky) and second heaven (outer space). We could see things we may not be able to reveal to anyone in the land of the living. In the book of Revelation, John was explicitly told not to reveal certain things he saw (Revelation 10:4).
As we pursue Him more and more, there will be things we will see and experience that will edify and strengthen our faith, and some of which we may not be allowed by God to reveal. Ultimately if we seek Him with all of our heart, we will surely find Him! Amen!
Ronnie's Thoughts 