Three Wise Men

After slogging through over three months of classes, the students of Klesis are finally done with instruction! From here on, hopefully no more new content will be taught so we can all focus on trying to pass our hardest classes. And thankfully we have this whole week to study hard (hahaha...)! Before we started our RRR (reading, review and recitation) week, Klesis was able to meet one last time as a big family at Durant Loft this past Friday, and we were able to hear from Kevan on the passage of the three wise men as described in Matthew 2. As the baby Jesus was born in a manger in the tiny town of Bethlehem, the Bible describes how these wise men took the journey to seek out this baby that's brought so much good news, and they did so by following the star of Bethlehem. Just as these men didn't sit on their hands and wait around, Kevan encouraged us to take action and seek spiritual truth! Unfortunately, there were others in the King Herod's court that are also described in the story as having knowledge of the baby Jesus but not taking initiative to discover what amazing news this was. Let's not be like those men who ended up missing out on the great joy that the wise men experienced.

After this message, we were blessed with times of praising God with classic Christmas hymns. And to top off our night, Steve and rest of the Klesis staff prepared candles and markers for us. At first, I think all of us were confused at what we were doing, but it was all soon made clear. We all had flashbacks to high school when we went around getting signatures on yearbooks from all our friends, as we made our way around the DL MPR, collecting names from those who have really cared for us and been there for this semester. I remember that as I got each person to write their names on my candle with their marker, how Klesis has really allowed me to find rich meaningful relationships with brothers and sisters that I can do life with. And finally, to finish our candle and anchoring all our friendships in the room, we wrote the name of Jesus in the middle of our candle. As Isaiah 9:6 says,

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be uponhis shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

Each of us was reminded how Jesus has been working in our lives this semester in so many ways, and we got to commemorate his goodness by writing down the name of Jesus that resonated with us most this semester. Personally, I picked "Wonderful Counselor" because of all the wisdom and guidance that God has poured into me this semester through my older brothers and sisters.

We wrapped up with the seniors being the first ones to light their candles and to pass on their flames to the rest of Klesis. As Jesus reminded his followers to be "the light of the world," we were challenged to be shining beacons to our friends and families as we head home for the holidays.

Study hard!