Read Online Yesterday, Today, and Forever by Maria Von Trapp - Free Book Online

for me one who is to be ruler in Israel” (Mic. 5:2).
    That was all. He didn’t want to hear any more. They were dismissed. It must have been almost too good to be true for them. And now the dying tyrant was thinking fast. Other messengers went out to summon the illustrious strangers. The Gospel goes on “Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star appeared” (Matt. 2:7).
    What a different company now appeared before King Herod! Not the submissive subjects of a dictator, always trembling in their boots, but free men, kings greeting a king. There was salaaming again, but this time it was on both sides, and the sick man on his golden couch tried very, very hard to be at his best. His shrewd, wicked mind was all made up. At his earliest opportunity he had to do away with that “King of the Jews” whom these magnificent-looking foreigners had come to adore, but first he must find out something about Him. They had said they had seen His star. Very much depended now on the time. Herod feared that the star might have appeared to them many years ago, and this King of the Jews, the Messiah, might be a warrior now, ready to strike. That is why Herod “ascertained from them what time the star appeared.” What a sigh of relief when he learned the time! An ugly smile played around his cruel lips when he thought that his opponent was a mere baby in His mother’s arms. But he had to finish his act, and he played it well. “And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, ‘Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him bring me word, that I too may come and worship him’ ” (Matt. 2:8).
    With childlike minds, they bowed and assured him that of course nothing would give them more pleasure; and with this promise the venerable men hurried to meet their caravan to be on the way, now that they knew where to go. “Wise men,” the Gospel calls them, but Herod had outsmarted them, so it seemed, because “the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light” (Luke 16:8).
    “When they had heard the king they went their way; and lo, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy” (Matt. 2:9–10).
    After not having seen the star for a while, they now view it with great joy. Only now can we imagine what a terrific trial Jerusalem must have been to those kingly souls. After their great decision to come all those vast distances, after the preparations and troubles and dangers of the journey, they finally reached the goal, the capital of the land of the Jews and the palace of the king, where, of course, they expected the infant to be.
    When they saw the perplexity on everybody’s faces when they asked the eager question, “Where is the newborn King of the Jews?” they grew more and more puzzled, and even the star had disappeared. Maybe this was the darkest hour in their lives. If the people at home had perhaps been startled at their whole undertaking, every word of their warning must have come back now when it all seemed to be a failure. It is so very humanly possible that the temptation may have arisen to leave quietly before their embarrassing situation became too widely known. They must have felt ashamed and embarrassed and bitterly disappointed when they learned that for a long, long time there hadn’t been a baby born in this royal palace of Jerusalem. But they were too unsophisticated and truly great just to leave quickly, turn toward the east, and vanish into the Syrian Desert. They believed in the star and in the One who had sent it, even after it had disappeared, and now — what a royal reward!
    The moon had left Stowe Hollow and was now standing directly over Cor Unum, our house. On account of the snow all around us, there was a dim twilight in the room — and a deep silence.
    “And?”