Today is the Epiphany — the feast of the Magi, the three wise men who followed a star from the East and arrived in Bethlehem to find the child they had been seeking.
Pope Leo XIV closed the Holy Door of St Peter's Basilica today, marking the end of the Ordinary Jubilee of 2025. It is only the second time in history that a jubilee year has been closed by a different pope than the one who opened it — a moment of unusual historical continuity and disruption simultaneously, which feels appropriate for the times.
I want to think about the Magi for a moment. Not as religious figures only, but as a model of something I think about constantly in my work.
Who the Magi Were
The Magi were not kings. The tradition of calling them kings came later — a poetic reading of Psalm 72. What Matthew's Gospel actually says is that they were wise men, probably astronomers or scholars from Persia or Babylon, men who studied the heavens and read significance into what they observed.
They saw something in the sky that they interpreted as a sign of a momentous birth. And they left.
They left their country, their positions, their familiar world. They undertook a journey of months, through uncertain terrain, to an unfamiliar place, following what was essentially an educated hypothesis about the significance of a star.
They had resources — they brought gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. They were not improvising. But they were willing to go, not knowing exactly what they would find, trusting their reading of the signs.
They had done the work. They had read the evidence. They acted on their conclusions.
The Diversion Through Herod
They made one significant error on the journey. They stopped in Jerusalem and asked Herod where the new king of the Jews had been born.
It was a reasonable assumption. A new king would be born in the capital. You would ask at the palace.
But it alerted the wrong person. It nearly cost the child his life.
The lesson I take from this is not that the Magi were foolish. It is that even well-planned moves carry risks that were not anticipated, and that part of the preparation is knowing what to do when the plan encounters reality.
They received warning in a dream not to return to Herod. They changed their route. They went home a different way.
Adaptability is part of the plan. The plan that cannot be adjusted is not a plan — it is a script, and reality is not scripted.
What the Magi Found
What they found, at the end of a journey of months, was a poor family in an obscure town with a young child.
Not the palace they had perhaps expected. Not the powerful king whose birth the celestial signs seemed to announce. A carpenter, a mother, a baby.
And they fell down and worshipped him. And they gave their gifts. And they went home satisfied.
This is one of the most quietly radical moments in the Christian story. The three most educated men in the narrative — men with resources, status, and international standing — arrived at their destination and found something that, by any external measure, should have been a disappointment.
And they were not disappointed. Because they had understood what they were looking for well enough to recognise it when they found it.
For the New Year
I start every new year thinking about what I am actually looking for. Not what I am planning to achieve — that is a different question. What I am actually looking for.
The honest answer, for me, is the same as it has always been: the freedom to live according to what I actually believe, to raise my children in accordance with what I think is true and good, to work at something meaningful, and to protect the people I am responsible for.
The structures I build — the international tax planning, the jurisdictional diversification, the residency and citizenship strategies — are not ends in themselves. They are in service of something larger.
Know what you are looking for. Then build the plan that gives you the best chance of finding it.
A blessed Epiphany to those who observe it. And a happy new year to everyone else.
Work with Sebastian
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