The Feast of Christmas celebrates God's wondrous gift of Jesus Christ to be the Savior of the world. The Feast of Epiphany celebrates our human gifts to God, symbolized by those gifts given by the wise men to the Christ Child. More than any other characters in the Christmas story, the three wise men have been the subject of much good humor. Perhaps you recall the story of the little boy who was setting up a manger scene in the corner of his schoolroom. Puzzled for a moment, he called out to his teacher, "And where shall I put the three wise guys?"

The truth is we know yery little about these ancient astrologers. We have assumed that there were three of them, because Matthew speaks of three different gifts being given to the Christ Child. We can only guess at the fact that they must have bee…