The Three Travellers

Stories for Another Day

Three travellers came riding with all speed, over mountains and plains, across rivers and through valleys. Long known for their wisdom and their great wealth, they had left their homes to follow a great star that they had seen rising in the East, that told them a new King had been born who would be king of all the world.

In the dead of night they came to a small village. In their haste they meant to go past, but the sound of weeping reached them and brought them to a halt. One said to the others, “Let’s rest here for the night, and set off refreshed in the morning.”

As the sun rose, they set off again and travelled as quickly as they could, to make up for the time they had lost. Without resting, they sped hour after hour in the heat of the day, and long into the night, until they came to the place where the star hung in the sky like a great beacon. It stood over a stable, quiet and still in the starlight.

“This must be the place where the infant King has been born,” they said to each other in wonder. They dismounted, and tidied themselves in preparation for their audience with the young King and his court. “We must have gifts to present to him that are fit for a king,” one said.

The first said, “I brought gold, but I gave it to a young girl whose baby was hungry and cold, to buy food and anything else that was needed.”

The second said anxiously, “I brought frankincense, but I gave it to a woman whose child was suffering and close to death, to cleanse the air and to help her in her prayers.”

The third exclaimed, “Ah, no! For the myrrh that I had, I gave to a mother to bury her son!”

With sorrowful hearts, the three looked at each other, and they looked at the stable which sheltered the baby they had come so far to see. “Perhaps we could slip in unnoticed, and still catch a glimpse of the newborn child,” one suggested hesitantly. The others nodded, eager to see the new King, even if just for a moment.

As quietly as they could, they opened the door of the stable and slipped inside. And there, bathed in the golden light of the great star, they saw a baby wrapped warmly and sleeping in a manger. They hung back in the shadows, ashamed to approach empty-handed, but the child’s mother saw them. She smiled at them, and gestured to them to come closer. With reluctant steps they came forward into the light, and there, lying at the foot of the manger, they saw three gifts, of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

This story has been told before, but it bears repeating because it is well to remember that every gift given from the heart goes further and does more than the giver could ever imagine.