Wishing On A Starr

In 1954, a television program debuted that became a Sunday night staple for the whole country. That was back in the days of black and white television, with TV antennas sprouting on roofs and rabbit ear antennas on the sets themselves. There was no cable TV, no satellite dishes, and the show remained in black and white until 1961. The program was called Disneyland. It kept that name until 1958 when the theme park opened and the show changed its name to Walt Disney Presents. Those who were around then can probably still sing the lyrics to the theme song. The singer was a cartoon character, Jiminy Cricket, and the song started like this:

When you wish upon a star

Makes no difference who you are.

There are other examples of wishing on stars that we have done as kids, and sometimes as adults. One of them is this nursery rhyme:

Star light, star bright

First star I see tonight

Wish I may, wish I might

Have the wish I wish tonight

We have all done our share of star gazing. Who hasn’t lain on the ground on a summer night under a clear sky and just looked up at all of the stars. I remember my dad pointing out the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper and showing me how to line up two stars in the Big Dipper to find Polaris, the North Star. He didn’t know many of the other constellations, but those were the two important ones because if I knew the direction of north at night, I would be able to find my way.

A little over 2,000 years ago, there was a group of shepherds on a hill watching over a herd of sheep. They didn’t own the sheep, they were hirelings whose job it was to make sure the sheep didn’t roam away or be attacked by predators. In those days, shepherds were on the bottom end of the social scale and many of them were petty criminals who used the night to hide from the authorities. Surely they did their share of star gazing and wondering what the stars were. Imagine how startled they must have been when they were interrupted and told they should leave the sheep and go to a stable in nearby Bethlehem so they could see the savior who had been promised. Think about it: the first people who met Jesus were lowly commoners, petty criminals.

On the opposite end of the social scale were three wise men, three kings, three astrologers. They also studied the stars and they all saw the same thing: a star that was moving like a beacon in the night. Being the people they were, they followed that star until they found the true Star at the end of the journey. They found the child Jesus, the one who would be the savior of the world, who would reopen the gates of heaven with his life and his death.

He is not a star we need to wish on, but only to pray to. He is our beacon, our guide in this life. If we just follow this star, accept his teaching and live our lives accordingly, then we will get to live throughout all of eternity with the maker of the stars. That’s a promise we don’t have to wish for.