A Story for Christmas: Where in the Universe is Kokabi?   Rev. Kip Gilts Matthew 2:1-11

 
           And God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky…”  And there were thousands of lights placed in the sky. In fact, there were 70,000 million million million lights known to most people as stars.  That’s the number 7 with 22 zeroes behind it.  That is a lot of stars.  So it is no wonder that Kokabi, went unnoticed for so long, but her story is a great story. It begins as all great stories do…Once upon a time.

            Once upon a time, a long time ago, there was a star named Kokabi.  She was created with only a word from God.  When God said, “Lights” there were lights billions and billions of lights, and Kokabi did her part to twinkle with all the others.  Kokabi liked watching men and women, boys and girls looking up at the sky at her and all of her star friends.  She could see them, but they could not really see her.  The other stars shined so brightly that for much of the time she was lost in their glow.  That did not stop Kokabi from twinkling.  She knew that her shining was not for her or even the boys and girls on earth.  She was shining for God.

            Now the stars make a funny dance in the sky according to people on earth.  Many of them seem to take turns coming as close to earth as they can and bowing before the people-filled planet, then going off so far that we on earth lose sight of them.  Other stars stay close to earth and we can see them most of the time.  Kokabi was one of those stars that seemed to have only one chance to get really close to earth, but, oh, what a chance it was!

            One night while Kokabi was twinkling as brightly as she could, and still no one seemed to notice, she heard the other stars talking about some big news.  She said, “I can’t hear you.  You’re too far away from me.  What did you say?  Did you say God was on the move?  Where is He? I want to see.”  The other stars did not pay much attention to Kokabi, she was so small and usually quiet, so they just ignored her.  On any other night Kokabi might have just sighed and went on shining.  But this was not any other night.  This was big news.  Kokabi spoke a little bit louder and shined a little bit brighter, “Hey out there, what did you say about the Lord being on the move?  Is he coming this way?”

            Finally, one of the older stars spoke gently to little Kokabi, “Yes, the Lord is on the move.  We are not sure when it will happen, but some have said that He is going to earth and plans to walk among those that He created there.”

             “Wow!” said Kokabi, as she got brighter than ever before, “Which one is earth?”

             “It’s the little blue dot down there with the boys and girls who look up this way,” the older star said.

             “Oh, I like that one,” she said.  “When is He going to be on the move? When is he going to earth?  What does He look like?  How will we know?”

            Kokabi started asking so many questions that the older star began to realize why so many of the other stars ignored the younger ones.  Once they started asking questions there was no end to them.  She told the excited little star to just wait. 

            And she did.  For a long time Kokabi waited.  At first she burned very brightly and once or twice she is pretty sure that some men on earth noticed her for the first time.  They pointed in her direction and said something, but she could not hear them, they were so far away.  Then the days seemed to get longer and the nights seemed to get shorter and nothing really seemed to be happening on earth.  She thought maybe the stars had played another mean trick on her and made it all up just to see what she would do.  Kokabi became sad and lonely.  Sometimes when you get your hopes up for something exciting and then nothing happens, it’s worse than just going on with nothing ever happening.  But things were happening.  Kokabi was so disappointed that she had not noticed that she was getting closer to earth all the time.  Maybe she did notice, but she had given up on anything special happening on earth. It made little difference to her.

            Then she heard it again.  The Lord was on the move.  He was going to earth to walk around among those that He created.  Kokabi’s brightness increased.  Even some men on earth noticed her and she had gotten so close to earth that she could hear them when one of them said, “Look at that star.  I’ve never noticed her before.  There must be a king being born somewhere, a great king.  Let’s follow that star.”

            “What do I do now?” she asked the older star, but she had traveled a long way from the older star and no one answered.  Then she heard a whisper and she grew very excited.  She could not remember where or when, but she knew she had heard that voice before. 

             “The Lord is on the move,” the voice whispered.  “Go toward Bethlehem, which Micah wrote about when he said, ‘You are one of the smallest in Judah, but will bring the greatest ruler ever.”

            Kokabi became so excited that she shined three times brighter than before and the stargazers that had been following grew even more excited.  If they could shine, they would have been brighter too.

            They traveled hundreds of miles and Kokabi led the way, but when they were only six miles away something happened that scared the little star.  The stargazers stopped in a city named Jerusalem to visit with the king there.  There was something about that king that made Kokabi nervous.  In fact, she became so nervous that she grew very dim.  No one even noticed her in the sky.  She heard her stargazing friends ask about her, but she would not, she could not shine brightly, she was too frightened of the evil king.  The king acted very nice to Kokabi’s new friends, but she knew better. 

            After the stargazers left the king’s palace and were just a little ways out of town, she heard the whisper once again, “The Lord is on the move.” 

            Those words were like a light switch to the little star.  She beamed so brightly that it seemed almost like day to her new friends below.  They looked up at her and smiled.  They were so excited that they laughed with joy.  This joy caused her to shine even more brightly.  Then she saw something that she will never forget.

            Kokabi did not need a whisper, a spotlight or an arrow to point out which one was the Lord, she knew.  She never expected to find the Lord on the move as a little human, but there was no doubt that this one in a woman’s arms was the same one who had created Kokabi with those words such a long time ago, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky…” 

            She began to shout, “Here He is!  The Lord is on the move and He is here.  Right here in Bethlehem!”  but no human can hear stars shout.  She shined so brightly that even those who don’t usually look at the stars noticed Kokabi.  Most people wondered what that was, but the stargazers knew.  Kokabi led them right to the place where the Lord on the move was.  She saw them unload their packages, bow before the baby and give gifts.  Gold for a king, frankincense for one who would live as a pastor and myrrh for one who would die for all people.  She heard the mother say, “His name is Jesus.”  She liked that name.  It sounded just like the whisper that led her to that place.

            Kokabi stayed there for a while looking at the One she never dreamed of ever seeing.  She was happy that her joy led others to Him.  As she began to move once again far away from the earth she wished that she could spend her whole life doing that, leading other people to the Lord on the move.

            No one really knows what happened to Kokabi after that.  Some say she was helped by planets who made her look brighter when Jesus was born.  Some say she burned so brightly that she was all burned out after that night.  I think somehow, she made a deal with the maker of heaven and earth that she could stay around here if she would do what she said she wanted to do, lead other people to the Lord on the move.  In fact, I’m almost sure I saw Kokabi tonight in the twinkle of your eyes that still look for Jesus.  I’ve seen Kokabi in Vacation Bible School in the smiling eyes of teachers and the excited eyes of children.  Wherever I see that sparkle in eyes that seem to lead me to Jesus, I think about Kokabi and wonder, “Where in the universe is Kokabi? Is that her right there?”

 The end.