The Singular King, December 2019

Fall of 2019 I assisted at our annual Covenant Presbyterian Church rummage sale here in Scranton, Pennsylvania. While sorting and setting up the donated items, I found a manger scene that was brand new, and decided to purchase it for one of my 4 (soon to be 5) grandchildren.

When I got it home, I opened it to look at the characters. There was the obligatory Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus, a shepherd, 1 cow, 1 donkey, 2 sheep, and 4 Kings. Wait... what? 4 Kings? On closer inspection, one of them was just a little smaller than the other three, and certainly not part of this set, as he didn’t have a place in the thermoform plastic tray the other pieces were securely placed in. Yet, he sure enough was a King… a dark-skinned King to boot. I immediately wondered how this singular king got mixed in and began to imagine the story that would come out of this blessing.

Shortly after, my husband and I drove to Little Rock from Pennsylvania to spend Thanksgiving with our older daughter, her husband, and our two beautiful granddaughters. They are members of 2nd Presbyterian Church, and while we were there Mayor Frank Scott, JR of Little Rock spoke at Sunday School. I was impressed by his personal story and rise to service in their community as an African American male raised by a his mother and grandmother. As he spoke, I knew he had to be the new owner of my singular King… especially when he said you had to leave at the conclusion of his talk to go preach on the Three Kings at his own church! When we got home I packed the king up and mailed it to him!

In the Mayor's words, “When we come together, we are more than just a series of neighborhoods and zip codes. We are the people of Little Rock, and we can change course for a better direction for our city if we have the will to do it.” Just like the Magi independently followed the star in the East to find the Messiah, he was following his own course, laid out by God, to effect positive changes in his neighborhood. 

I hope and pray I can follow the mayor's advice and do the same for our community here in Pennsylvania - not as a mayor, certainly, at my age and stage of life, but as a Christian woman, continuing to help others and being receptive to all, no matter who they are. 

NOTE: I became so intriqued with the story of the Magi, that I borrowed an interlibrary book, The Story of the Three Kings: Melchior, Balthasar and Jaspar, which originally was written by John of Hildesheim in the 14th c. It was so fascinating I located online and bought myself a second-hand copy the following year!