Three Wise Women, Part 1

Our church has a "Breakfast with the Wise Men" tomorrow. As part of that event, I'm telling an epiphany story. Part of the story contains the Russian folk tale of Babushka; the rest is from my imagination. It's too long for a blog post, so I'll post it over the next few days.

This is a story about three women who become wise through their experiences – hard-won wisdom. All of us make mistakes in life; it’s the ones who learn and change who are the wisest.

Our story begins in the Far East, in the home of Miranda. For years, Miranda has smiled as her husband, Melchior, has puttered around in their stable with his two friends, Caspar and Balthazar, looking at the stars. Other people were impressed with how serious the three men were in their study of astrology, but Miranda often just shook her head, and thanked her lucky stars that at least the three men weren’t interested in camel racing – expensive, with a serious risk of gambling losses. At least stars didn’t spit and weren’t messy like camels. So, Miranda humored her husband, and went about her business, sure that astrology was a safe hobby that wouldn’t interfere with what was serious in life.

Until the day when Melchior came up to bed after a long evening in the stable with his friends. He woke her up, immediately putting her in a bad mood. “Miranda! We’re done it! We’ve found the star we’ve been looking for!”

“That’s great, Melchior. Tell me about it tomorrow. That star’s not going anywhere.”

“Yes, yes, it is! It’s the one! We leave in a week to follow it to find a newborn king.”

“What? Leave? King? What are you talking about?”

“The King has been born. We’re leaving in a week, Miranda. We’re taking gifts; we’re going to see this king.”

This finally woke Miranda up. Leaving? To follow a star? Was her husband crazy? Had all of that stable dust gone to his head? Where was her wise husband? They argued all night – Miranda talked about his standing in the neighborhood –what would people say when he left to go follow a star? She tried to convince him that the journey would be too expensive, that it would take forever. She used every logical reason she could think of to try to change his mind. Nothing worked.

“OK. Fine,” she said, thinking to try reverse logic, since nothing else had worked. “If you’re going, then I’m going with you.” She was certain this would stop him. No man in his right mind would take his wife across miles of desert to follow a star. Surely this would convince him.

“GREAT!” he said. “You should see this! I never believed you would go, but that’s great. We leave in a week.” And he ran out of the room to begin preparations, leaving his wife sitting on the bed, with her eyes huge, and her mouth hanging open.

The next thing she knew, she was riding a camel in a caravan, following a star.