AN ORIENTAL STAR!

Amazingly, Christmas is on my mind in July. Pictorial simulations of the nativity scene have been swimming in my thoughts, like a school of myriad colored fish in the depths of the Atlantic. And maybe I am not way off since some historians purport that Christmas must have been in summer considering that the shepherds were outdoors which would have not been possible in winter.


The part that has stuck to my mind like graphic superglue is where Mary in the throes of parturition was denied a space in the inn to deliver her dream child, her promise son to the world.

For me this is a truth that permeates the atmosphere of life like the smell of crushed garlic cloves.  Thing is that we are all pregnant. Everybody on the surface of mother earth has something to deliver. Like the Holy Spirit impregnated Mary, sperms of creativity from God has been embedded in the womb of our souls. Each one of us is heavy with a saviour for mankind; something to save humanity from depression and sorrow like comedy, music and sports, another thing to make the world’s labour easier like machines, IT and telecoms, something to enlighten the burden of ignorance like literary materials and speeches, another to protect man from the elements and diseases like clothes and drugs.


But the truth is that sometimes the door of the inns of life is slammed in our faces and we are left in the cold. This is where the disaster usually occurs. Lots of people abort at this stage. You might have the gift of football and your dream club shuts its door on you with the excuse that you are not good enough, the manuscript of your dream bestseller might be rejected because you are still unknown and have no literary agent, the five star hotel says you don’t have what it takes to give your speech in their grand ball room.


Do I hear you say you are a virgin? Good news is that so were Mozart, Edison, Gates, Rembrandt, Einstein, and a host of others before they got pregnant with ideas and went into the labour room of possibilities.


Yeah, a lot of people have gone ahead of you and they have filled the inns. Maestros, masterpiece artists, Grammy and Oscar winners, Nobel laureates, name it. Life tells you, there isn’t any room for you; your ship came in late and you missed the boat. You turn around, head bowed, tail in between your legs like a flea-infested, homeless mongrel and head towards the slimy cold fingers of insignificance’s darkness, the blood of the life of your dreams about to run down your legs into the unfeeling arid sands. Your gift is about to become a colossal waste.


But hold it, look around you, hear the lowing of the cows around you, a stable is not far from where you stand. The smell of hay wafting from yonder stable is that of hope. Inhale and change direction, unglamorous and unsavoury it might be but it is somewhere for you to deliver your baby. The manger is a place of birthing dreams. Your dawn begins here.


Your manger might be, your living room, your garage ( like Apple computers), the boot of your car(like Sweet Sensation), your kitchen, the local football club without kits, a rundown building ( one of the most popular churches in Nigeria today started out in such a dump), self publishing your own book. Do not let all these deter you, just go on and give life to your baby.


It is after your delivery that your star will begin to glow and shine until it is seen all the way in the east, the orient, the land of the rising sun. It’s your star that will direct wise men to you. It will guide men from distant lands to your manger. You stop being inconsequential at this juncture. It is written that the wise men opened their gifts and presented gold, frankincense and myrrh. Gold signifies wealth and kingship, frankincense typifies priesthood and myrrh is associated with death. This means in the arena of your gift you would become a king Midas of that kingdom. A priest is a mediator, a spiritual leader who shows others the way to a higher reality of life. Birthing your dream will make people see you as a priest (Henry Ford is the priest of the religion of cars; Walt Disney is the priest of cartoons).  Myrrh shows that your old self dies for a BRAND new you to resurrect.  Lionel Messi is an ordinary guy until he starts playing. The gold people give to him for promotions is not because of his person, it’s for his starry achievements’ with the round leather. YOUR STAR ATTRACTS YOUR GOLD!!!


You see, there are some Herod’s that are prancing around our locale because your star has not shown up yet. The Herod’s of politics, industry, fashion designing, architecture, shipping, banking and so on. When you birth your promise to the world, they will become yesterday’s news. The throne will be yours to mount. That is why sometimes they refuse to let you put a foot in the door; the present monarchs try to put your potential to death before it is birthed. Refuse to die, run from the Israel of your comfort zone and grow your dreams, even if you are in Egypt. The Israel might be a big multinational that would stagnate your gift to the world; Egypt might be a small shop where you grow your entrepreneurship skills. These skills will later help you to go back to Israel to change things.


When the wise men told Herod about the new king, the old ruler inquired of his scribes if they were privy to the information regarding the boy leader and they said a Prophet had made predictions about him in the past.  This shows that this thing has been written into your destiny. Like the infant in swaddling clothes, your fledgling enterprise will soon be recognized and feared. It is on its way to becoming a super power.


The sun rises in the east and never sets there, from the time it rises in the orient; it only gets brighter and brighter. That is your destiny my friend. You are on your way to becoming an oriental star, if you can just deliver the song, the invention, the clothes, the designs, the ideas, the corporations, the books and all that is in you. The tragedy will be if you never bring it forth. Then you will only remain an oriental star that would have been. DELIVER IT!!!