The Bethlehem Star

The Bethlehem Star
Pg. XIII
didn’t reappear until now, and so that is why we set out again.
We can see now, though,” he added, looking up at the star,
“that it is finally bringing us to our destination. It appears so
much brighter here even than in our own homeland, that we
are convinced that our sense of this star is correct. Now it is
only a matter of welcoming into the world the person whom it
is for, and of perhaps easing the path, in some small way, for
the family who will shoulder this tremendous responsibility.”
“And then?” I asked. “Will you become advisors to this
person; will you remain with him to help make certain that the
world accepts him for who he is to be?”
“Not at all,” chimed in the smiling Balthasar. “We have no
doubt that, whoever this person is to be, our Father in heaven
would not have put him or her here without also providing
only the finest parents to guide them on their journey through
childhood. No, we will not remain. It is our intent to step out
of the way, to return to our homeland, and to allow the hand of
our Father to steer the
course of destiny.
“Surely,”I continued,
“as you followed the star
towards the west, surely
you anticipated finding
this person in some city
of great importance, like
our holy city Jerusalem.
Doesn’t it seem ...odd
that a “king,” as you say,
should come from our
tiny Bethlehem?”
“At first, yes,”
answered Melchior, “but,
as we came up from
Jericho, from the Jordan
Valley into the Judean
highlands here, we could
readily see that this star
was not leading us to
Jerusalem, but rather a little farther south. That is when our
excitement began to grow.”
Balthasar added, “We wouldn’t have gone to that city at all
if it hadn't been that Herod sent out his henchmen to ‘escort’ us
in, ‘protecting us,’ of course, and making sure that we made a
stop at his palace with all of our gifts first. Now personally, I
love giving gifts, but really, how do you people put up with
him, anyway? It’s like wearing a camel-hair shirt inside out!”
He laughed, and grabbed onto his belly with both his hands
just to keep it from shaking too much and knocking him off
balance, I’d guess.
Kasper added, “At our arrival in front of his throne, I’m
afraid we made a big mistake.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“We announced that we had come to help him
celebrate the birth of a child whom we believed to
have been a member of his own family, the future
king.”
“Yeah, big mistake that was!” laughed Balthasar.
“Well,” added Melchior, “we’d already told the
soldier escorts whom he sent out for us what we were
here for. How could we not say that we thought this
future king was to come from Herod’s family?”
“He’d have had our heads!” laughed Balthasar.
“And it’s so hard to travel without your head, you
know! It’s got your eyes in it; your ears; everything!”
“We certainly knew too well,” Balthasar added, a
big grin on his face, “that no Messiah was going to
come out of Herod’s family. If he did, Herod would
have had him killed right away, like he did his wife,
and half the rest of his family already. Personally, I
pity his sons
Aristobulus and
Balthasar, the Jolly, …my clear favorite
Alexander, who
ought to watch
their backs
around the
eldest,
Antipater. We
packed in a few
extra gift items
just to appease
him, but, I’ll
tell you, we
didn’t calculate
his greed
accurately
enough. No
wonder you all
are breaking
under his tax
load!”
I couldn’t help but grin just a little.
“Then, you come bearing gifts for this newborn
infant?” I asked them.
“Yes, we do,” Kasper said.
“Of course!” chimed in Balthasar. “Who comes
to a birthday party without a gift; especially for the
actual birthday?”
“May I ask, then, what do you bring ...for an
infant?”
They all looked solemnly at one another. And
then Kasper spoke.
“The road of a child such as this will not be an
easy road, my friend. So we bring III gifts. We
believe that his origin will somehow be from the
Divine, so we bring the finest incense in the world,