The Story of the Other Wise Man
1895
What if the Fourth Wise Man never reached Bethlehem? Henry Van Dyke tells the achingly beautiful story of Artaban, a Magian priest who sees the star and sets out to honor the newborn King. But when he pauses to aid a dying stranger, he misses the caravan. And so begins a pilgrimage that will last thirty-three years, as Artaban trades his precious gifts, gems meant for the King, one by one to feed the hungry, heal the sick, shelter the fugitive. He never finds the King in the way he expected. Yet on a hill outside Jerusalem, in the final hours of a carpenter from Nazareth, Artaban finally understands: he has been serving the King all along, in every stranger's face. This is a story about the radical idea that love, given freely, is itself the gift. It will linger in your chest long after you've turned the last page.
