wise men increase in every generation…

i was thinking this week about the wise men that we have read about over there in matthew in the CHRISTmas story. they bring many questions that aren’t answered in scripture…

• “where did they come from?” we don’t know,
• “how many were there?” we really aren’t sure.
• “how did they know to follow the star?” we’re not told.

they just seem to come mysteriously out of nowhere to pay homage to the new born KING, & then just as mysteriously they are gone.

scripture doesn’t give many details, but tradition has had a heyday! tradition says that they were 3 in number, and that they traveled on camels across the desert, silhouetted against the nighttime sky, graced with palm trees. tradition gives their names as casper, melchior, baltezar. tradition tells us where they came from, what they did, & where they went.

traditions tells us that they were baptized by thomas, and when they died that their bodies were preserved in constantinople. centuries later their bones were moved to cologne, and if you have the price of admission, you can still see their bones, even to this day. tradition has told their story in its entirety. the only problem is that all of this is just tradition. there is no proof for any of what tradition tells us.

but i am certain about one thing - the number of wise men and women increases in every generation as more and more people follow what we know about the wise men, rather than what we don’t know.

just a thought from the front porch on this CHRISTmas day…