Advent Four: The Fourth Wise Man

The original story is here, but my distorted memory of an inaccurate paraphrase goes like this:

We all know about the three wise men, but there was a fourth one as well. On his way to meet the other wise men to pay tribute to the King of Kings he met an ill man by the road. He stopped to help him and paid for his treatment with one of the gems he'd brought.

Having missed the other Wise Men and the nativity, he carried on, searching for the Messiah. However, every time he seemed to be getting somewhere he kept meeting people in trouble and stopped to help them, often using the tributary gems to fund his efforts.

After about thirty odd years he found himself in Jerusalem and who should he meet but Jesus Christ. "Lord," he said, "I'm sorry it took so long to get you, but although I looked for you everywhere, I kept missing you. Also, I brought some gems for you but I used them for people who need help. Sorry about that."

"No biggie," says Jesus. "It turns out that, in a way, you were actually travelling with me all that time, and doing my business as well. You may have been the wisest of all the wise men."

"Great!" says the Fourth Wise Man. "That's good news. I'll be sure to spread it around."