Christmas started in our house. Not just because it is the first Sunday of Advent, although it is that as well. Our illuminated twenty-one-inch, twenty-six-point Moravian Star assumed its rightful position hanging on the front porch. It is always the first decoration around here to be unpacked.
It is tradition. It was the same with my mother when I was growing up, and she learned it from her mother. My dear wife, Charlotte, has continued the custom. The star always serves as the harbinger, telling us that Christmas is coming. I quickly learned, as a little boy, to watch for the Moravian Star going up around Thanksgiving, because the other decorations wouldn’t be far behind. There would be a quick trip to the mountains and the Blue Ridge Parkway to find a live Christmas tree to cut and bring home. Candles would go in the windows, wreaths would find their doors, and Mom would start cooking her holiday cookies and candies. But it all started with the Moravian Star.
Growing up in the Piedmont of North Carolina, the Moravian stars were everywhere at Christmas. That was due to the Moravians, who founded Winston-Salem. Well, they founded the Salem half, anyway. In fact, it is almost impossible to travel anywhere in North Carolina during the holidays and not see a Moravian Star somewhere.
The very first Moravian star is said to have originated in the 1830s at the Moravian Boys’ School in Niesky, Germany, as a geometry project. They then grew in popularity as Moravian congregations assembled them and sold them as fundraisers. Today, they are everywhere the Moravian influence has touched, including the huge thirty-one-foot star that sits atop Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem. (Okay, I think we’re technically supposed to call it the Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, but that’s a ridiculously long name. It used to be simply Baptist Hospital back when I would ride my bike past it to deliver newspapers. Of course, that was way back in the last century.)
It is written in Matthew that the Magi rejoiced with exceeding great joy when they reacquired the Star in the East after their talk with Herod (Matthew 2:9-10). I always chuckle when I read that verse, because it reminds me of my exceeding great joy as a little boy when our star appeared.
I love my star. I love seeing it light up the front porch, but I also love its meaning. Despite all the glimmer, glitz, and shiny sparkle of the other Christmas decorations draping our house, that beautiful white star is always pointing to Jesus. Just as it was over two thousand years ago when it signaled the birth of Jesus to the Magi, today it is, for me, a constant reminder of what and who we should be celebrating: Jesus, our Savior, our Messiah.
Christmas is coming, and so is Jesus. The star is lighting His way and pointing toward Him. In fact, Jesus himself said, “I am the bright and Morning Star” (Revelation 22:16 KJV).
Hallelujah, and amen. Come, Lord Jesus! Are you ready?
Kevin Spencer likes to play with words, help others play with them, and is privileged to be a staff writer for Christian Devotions. He lives with his beautiful blessing of a wife, Charlotte, and his amazing collegiate grandson, Caleb.