The Story of the Other Wise Man
One night, a priest of the Magi named Artaban sees the same star that lights the path of his three fellow wise men toward Bethlehem. He准备了 three precious jewels to offer the newborn King. But when he pauses to aid a dying stranger, he loses his caravan, his companions, and his chance to witness the holy birth. What follows is a lifetime of wandering through a world filled with suffering, a plague in Persia, a slave market in Babylon, a ruined city where children starve. At every crossroads, Artaban must choose: continue toward his original goal, or stop and help. He chooses to help. He gives away his jewels one by one to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, free the captive. For thirty-three years he walks, always arriving too late, always one step behind the Christ he seeks. Yet in his final moment, in darkness and poverty, he finally encounters the King, not in a manger, but in the broken body of a dying child. The answer arrives: in serving the least of these, he has been serving all along. This is a story about the shape of devotion, and whether love, freely given, ever goes wasted.
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“Who seeks for heaven alone to save his soul,May keep the path, but will not reach the goal;While he who walks in love may wander far,Yet God will bring him where the blessed are.””
— Henry Van Dyke
“But this I know. Those who seek Him will do well to look among the poor and the lowly, the sorrowful and the oppressed.””
— Henry Van Dyke
“He knew that all was well, because he had done the best that he could, from day to day. He had been true to the light that had been given to him. He had looked for more. And if he had not found it, if a failure was all that came out of his life, doubtless that was the best that was possible. He had not seen the revelation of "life everlasting, incorruptible and immortal." But he knew that even if he could live his earthly life over again, it could not be otherwise than it had been.””
— Henry Van Dyke
“…there was a saying that Marlon Brando changed the way actors acted, James Dean changed the way people lived. I believe that.””
— Henry Van Dyke
“But it is better to follow even the shadow of the best than to remain content with the worst.””
— Henry Van Dyke
“But the light for which the world is waiting is a new light, the glory that shall rise out of patient and triumphant suffering. And the kingdom which is to be established forever is a new kingdom, the royalty of perfect and unconquerable love.””
— Henry Van Dyke
“Should he risk the great reward of his divine faith for the sake of a single deed of human love?””
— Henry Van Dyke
“behold, an azure spark was born out of the darkness beneath, rounding itself with purple splendours to a crimson sphere, and spiring upward through rays of saffron and orange into a point of white radiance. Tiny and infinitely remote, yet perfect in every part, it pulsated in the enormous vault as if the three jewels in the Magian's breast had mingled and been transformed into a living heart of light. He bowed his head. He covered his brow with his hands. "It is the sign," he said. "The King is coming, and I will go to meet him.””
— Henry Van Dyke
