Greasy Hair, Wise Men, and Revelation: Luke 2, Matthew 2

By Sarah Keenan
Revelation can help us navigate through life’s many trials—including protecting our families.

Meet my baby girl.

She’s 8 months old and just about the best baby I could ask for. She’s fun-loving, she’s inquisitive, she sleeps (relatively) well, and she’s stinking adorable (look at that hair!!).

One of her few flaws: she has cradle cap. A yellowish scaly rash that appeared in patches on her head. 

About a week ago, I decided that I was finally going to do something about it. I found a tub of Vaseline and lathered a dab of it onto her hirsute little head. I kept it on for few minutes, washed and shampooed it out of her hair, and stuck her into bed for the night, feeling pretty accomplished. 

That is, until I saw her the next morning.

Her hair was not just greasy. It was Severus-Snape-eating-a-Philly-cheesesteak greasy. The kind of greasy that took five baths, corn starch, and copious amounts of Dawn soap to remedy.

It wasn’t my first parenting mistake, and it was definitely not my worst mistake thus far. Parenting—and life in general—is full of Vaseline-covered, greasy-haired moments. Moments when you didn’t make the right call. Moments when a simple mistake turns into a prolonged ordeal. 

I recently met someone who vehemently told me she never wanted to have children. She mentioned how impossible it would be to protect a child in today’s world—and her fears stretched far beyond greasy gaffes with cradle cap. She was worried about domestic politics, economic issues, global instability, climate change, and a litany of other problems. And she isn’t alone in these fears. All parents worry about how to protect their children—both from personal blunders and larger, more uncontrollable crises. 

Luckily, we all have a resource that can help us protect our families and navigate through life’s trials: divine revelation.

Matthew 2 provides powerful examples of people receiving and following through on revelation.

The wise men, or magi, were some of the many witnesses of Christ’s birth. Their method of finding the Savior has always impressed me. They did not idly hear about the Savior’s birth; they actively sought out the information. They were looking towards the sky. They were reading the prophecies and knew enough to understand what that symbol represented when even the chief priests in Jerusalem didn’t. They were not intimidated by the effort or the time they were sacrificing to get to the Savior. They just left their homes with treasures in tow in hopes of finding the Savior. They were active seekers of revelation. 

Then the wise men followed the star, and it lead them straight to baby Jesus, right? Nope. There’s more to the story.

The scriptures provide a couple of clues that indicate that the star was not as easy to follow as we would first assume:

1. Matthew 2:2. The wise men say they saw the star in the East, but it seems that it only gives them a general direction, judging by the fact that they ask “Where is he that was born King of the Jews?” once in Jerusalem. Their decision to go to Jerusalem was likely due to the fact that it was the capital city of Israel and the most likely location the prophesied Israelite king would appear.
2. Matthew 2:4-6, 8. From Jerusalem, it was Herod who sent the wise men to Bethlehem—using information he had learned from the local chief priests and scribes—rather than a star that led them there.
3. Matthew 2:9–10. After the visit with King Herod, the wise men began their journey to Bethlehem and “lo, the star, which [the wise men] saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.” Why the excessive celebration upon seeing the star, or the need to ask for directions, if the star had been there the entire time and could take them to Jesus’ direct location? 

It was only once the wise men had done all they could themselves to find the newborn Messiah that the star clearly directed them to the exact spot where the child Jesus was. To me, the star represents how the Lord most often gives revelation. Many times, we are led in the general right direction. But future, more specific revelation is often withheld until we first expend our own efforts. We must search, question, ask, and act to understand God’s will before the details are revealed to us.

Even as we seek and act on revelation, we will undoubtedly make mistakes—for instance, the wise men unwittingly alerted King Herod to the infant Messiah’s existence. But, when we are actively trying to do what is right, God makes up the difference. The wise men were prompted to not return to King Herod, and Joseph was visited by an angel, giving him the direction he needed to flee to Egypt before Herod’s slaughter of Israelite children began. 

Just as Joseph could not have protected his family—and the wise men could not have located Christ—without heaven’s help, we are likewise expected to listen and act on revelation to preserve our families. Regular family night, family scriptures, and family prayer can fortify our homes against the physical and spiritual dangers that besiege it. Through revelation, we too can overcome our tribulations and honest mistakes. We can protect our loved ones and ensure for our families the blessings of eternity. We can learn from our mistakes. Especially the greasy-haired ones.