Bringing the story together
Regular readers of this blog will know that I have a particular love for the story of the star at Christmas time. Very soon, I hope to share some exciting news about that Littlest Star on these pages. Today, though, I would like to pay tribute to a geometry teacher in Niesky, Germany in the 1830s , who gave his students at the Boys’ School in the town some special homework. They were to create a 26-point star based upon the shape of an augmented rhombicuboctahedron (I didn’t know either), and they all went away to do it. Over the years it became something of a tradition, and on the 50th anniversary of the school a spectacular 110 point star was made. An old-boy of the school then started making the stars for sale and selling do-it-yourself instructions through his bookshop. His son then established a Christmas Star Factory (no, really) which exists to this day. Today, Moravian stars can be found in many places around the world, and often they are spectacularly complex:
CLICK for larger image
In today’s family service we shall bring together 6 points of a much smaller star. The brilliance, though, is in the story rather than the star. On such an occasion my role as preacher is to point to the story rather than to tell it. My hope is that like the silvery light of that first star, it points the way.
