Reflections after the Christmas time

Reviewing the story of the famous Three Holy Kings. This is the story of the birth of Baby Jesus and how it all happened in Bethlem. In Spain, my country, the last celebration of the Christmas time happens on the 5th of January. That night, the catholic tradition says that kids can tell their wishes to the Three Holy Kings and they take record of all those wishes with themselves and help the kids achieving their dreams. With the time, that night has become just a second night to give presents to the kids because in most houses, the parents prefer to use the night of the 24th of December (Sankt Niklas, Santa Claus) to give the presents to the kids and then, have the kids well entertained during the breaktime from scholar activity. So the biggest proportion of the presents is given by Santa Claus and a second or secundary serie is given at this last night of the Christmas time.

This year, I decided to take the meaning of this very special night with me and think and learn about it.

Now, after my experience, I think for the next year, maybe we could teach our kids to have one night for material presents to pick up from Santa and have another night for expresss true wishes to hope for.

Would you like to know more about my personal adventure on this subject?

I started thinking about the author of this ancient tale:

He is telling about the Holy Family finding shelter in a humble trough in Bethlem and all kind of peoples visiting the holy child to show their respect, devotion and joy to him while the angels are watching from heaven. And specificly, the tale mentions three wise kings coming with their camels from far places, following a star to reach the place where the child is and bringing noble presents to him: Gold (as a symbol of his Majesty), Incense (as a symbol of his Divinity) and Myrrh (as a symbol of his Humanity).

What is that he was trying to tell us when he put the powerful kings on their knees in front of a newborn baby who has not even a proper home to come to birth?

As I interpret it, they came to honor him and put themselves at his service, according to their attitude and the gifts they were bringing but I want to explain in detail my reasons to reach these conclusions.

Inspired by Michelangelo who portrayed in Florence the powerful King David when he was still a young man in his puberty armed just with a stone and an intention, this Christmas, I have given myself a curious literary challenge.

As the ones of you who know me closely already know, there is a special connection in my life with the city of Prague and that has led to the figure of the little Baby Jesus of Prague been associated with many small and not so small events of my personal life so strong that the figure has even got its own familiar name among my closest circle of trust.

We all call it the NJP (in Spanish, Ni?o Jesús de Praga)

The NJP is actually Spanish, like myself.

The little statue, I mean.

It was taken to Prague as a gift to a noble lady who from the beginning trusted in its protective powers and who spread her own faith to the whole city at a time when the city was in need of faith in its own survival and courage to dream about its own victory.

At that time there was no press or anything to read anywhere.

It was known just what could be seen and people talked just about what was known.

And although everything was different in that, everything was mostly the same as it is now, in almost everything else.

The city believed in the NJP because the noble lady who owned it, given the desperate situation in which Prague people were, quickly offered to everyone to put themselves all under the protection of her beloved NJP.

Somehow, surely in some magical way, and for some strange reason that we will never know, when the conflict ended up and the citizens could see the result, they felt like they should thank the NJP for its protection and since then the city granted a fix space for any visitor to get there and entrust yourself to its protection or thank for it, in case you should feel like that.

I am one of those who prefers to take care of herself and make sure to bother the NJP as less as possible, considering that the little kid will probably be extremly busy attending other more important issues. But my mother has a clear decision about this.

She has me constantly entrusted to the protection of the NJP.

Given that life has been guiding me along the last four years to all the things I needed to start to build my dreams, I decided this year to give the NJP my wishes for the day of the Magic Holy Kings. It is something like giving your vote to your nephew in an election. I'm going to offer my wishes to the winning bet of the NJP.

This innocent literary challenge, which might seem stupid in the first instance, has led me to a very interesting question:

What would the heart without words of a newborn wrapped only by the beat of his own consciousness of being alive, ask to the powerful kings visiting him to take notice of his wishes and offer their power and richness in its service?

And therefore, at the service of what should the rich and the powerful ones offer their power and wealth?

According to the story of the NJP′s Birth, wealth and power, must kneel at the service of what does not know neither of numbers nor of words. That is, be at the service of what can be expressed from the heart of a newborn baby.

As for the baby, please pay attention.

It is not any child.

He is a purely human baby, still a virgin to the wounded memory of his ancestors, still free even from the language of his people, infinitely unexplored as a singular living entity, infinitely ignorant of the reality of his time or the name of his land.

The child does not speak. But he knows exactly what he needs:

He needs to be given true affection and be surrounded by others who will take good care of him. That, above all and as the most mandatory demand.

And then, the kid also needs that the ones in charge of her/him, will allow her/him to grow freely being who she/he is, without fear of expressing her/his own self, that they encourage her/him to shine, that they train him to choose what he should choose to be able to coexist with Health and Peace, that they help him explore and experience the world and always find someone to share life with Joy, Curiosity and Naturalness.

But of course, although the NJP wants to say all that to the Kings, it is still very young and does not know how to say it. His heart only knows how to desire simple things and his brain still does not speak any language although, of course, it is not empty. It is only so clean, that it seems to be empty, as is the case with clean glasses when it seems that they are not at all where they are.

So the NJP of my story, is needing to explain to the Three Holly Kings, the true content of his wishes and the only wish he is managing to express from his heart is “Peace and Wellbeing for him and his family and for all his brothers and sisters around the world”.

None of those who are appearing to greet him, do really know yet about who he is and will be. Neither does he know it yet. Actually, only the Star knows it.

It is the star the one that is alerting everyone to visit and honor the kid. The star is a messenger of Saturn who is the only one who knows exactly what that child has come to do.

The child is bringing a message. It is a very important message. He will tell everyone that none of them should hide or be ashamed, that everyone should be compassionate and know how to forgive her/himself and the others, that they should treat each other like good brothers and sisters and respect their elders and always stay close to children and moreover, that all of them, one by one, just for being humans are precious and luminous like himself and like all other creatures of Nature.

A precious and very powerful message that strongly impacted the people of his time and spread like wildfire without anyone being able to stop it.

A message that centuries and markets have been transforming and manipulating based on words, images and laws.

But if we eliminate the words and observe in silence the scene in its symbolic value, we find that the story is well written and perhaps we should reread it with new eyes.

This is for me, the true message of the story:

Prepare your heart to accommodate the kind of wishes that would make feel happy a newborn baby and even the most powerful forces in the sky will come to pay you their respect and humbly offer themselves in your service.

Let the magic of life carry you around, envelop you and welcome you, as if you were a newborn baby.

And about how to please the wishes of the NJP, how to make the newborns of the world feel honored, celebrated and welcome among their own people, we will need to see ourselves as part of their familiar team, that is, part of their educators, their family, their neighborhood and their human fellows as well as we will need to improve the model of living on which we relate to each other and we mix with each other and with others; with those who are familiar to us and those who are not.

So in this 2019, I hope that all the people of all the different parts of the world, will take care of preparing their hearts to lodge the kind of dreams that could make a newborn, smile without fear.

This is my wish for you, my beloved NJP. For you, for me and for all our companions. Let′s dare to dream and hope for this year granting all of us a good approach to our most honest wishes.