Who were they -- these travelers from the mysterious East, who sometime after the birth of the baby arrive in Bethlehem with expensive gifts? They appear for a moment and are quickly gone. The text calls them wise men. They are known variously as magi, astrologers, astronomers, philosophers, mystics or scientists whose interests stretched far beyond Israel. Tradition has assigned them names and races. The scripture identifies the three gifts they brought, leading us to assume there were three wise men.

But who they were, where they came from or what they were about remain buried in the mists of history and legend. Like all of us at our best, they were on a quest, hungry for light in a dark world, eager to find that which was greater than themselves. Their story is more than a pleasant tale.…