"The Other Wise Man" brings a very special gift.
When I was 12 years old, my Sunday school teacher gave me a book for Christmas. The book, written in 1896 by Henry van Dyke, was The Story of the Other Wise Man. It tells the story of a fourth Magi, Artaban. This "other wise man" saw the same heavenly signs that told his friends, Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar, of the arrival of the Christ Child. Artaban has his own gifts (a sapphire, a ruby and a pearl) to present to Jesus, but, while hastening to join his friends, Artaban stops to aid a dying man and is left behind. He spends the rest of his life in a search for Christ, but each time he comes close to his goal, he is sidetracked by the need to help another human being. Not much longer than a long short story, The Story of the Other Wise Man is the perfect book for reading aloud with the family this holiday season.