From my desk at http://www.BethelehemGA30620.Net
The story of what became of the star that guided the Wise Men to Bethlehem on the holy night when Christ was born is like no other legend handed down from ancient days. Its origin is in the sacred writings which tell of a time "when the Morning Stars sang together."
The Morning Stars and the Stars of the Twilight, the Evening Star, the Seven Stars, and a host of others often gathered together to sing for joy.
On one such night when the stars were rejoicing and singing new songs to their Creator, who had made them with his own fingers, and given them names, and set them in the firmament, a messenger came from the Creator.
The stars hushed their singing to listen.
"Stars of the Morning, and Stars of the Twilight," the messenger began, "and all other stars gathered here to sing praises to the Creator, I bring you a message from heaven."
"What message?" asked Evening Star.
"The Creator wishes to ask one of you to volunteer for a special mission."
"What kind of special mission?" asked the spokesman for the Morning Stars.
"It will be an unusual thing," the messenger explained. "You would leave your set course and go into a new course down near the earth. There, you would appear in the sky of the East, to guide three Wise Men on a journey to search for a newborn king."
For a time the stars were silent, as if they could think of nothing to say.
"How fascinating that might be," murmured the oldest of the Stars of the Twilight. But he was speaking to himself, not to the messenger.
The star nearest to the North Star whispered, "I am afraid to leave my constellation."
"I'll go! I'll go!" cried the smallest of the Seven Stars.
"Very well," said the messenger, "come with me."
As the small star told his six close companions farewell, they said to the messenger: "When wall you bring Little One back to our cluster?"
"That is not for me to say," the messenger told them. "But if he does not return, I will send you word where he is shining."
The messenger told the little volunteer many things as they journeyed toward the earth.
"Little One," he said, "you are a most fortunate star. You will see come to pass the greatest event ever to take place. God, the Creator, is going down to earth as a little Child. And you will be the Child's star."
The little star almost fell from the sky--so great was his amazement and delight.
"First, though, the messenger continued, "you will spend about two years shining as a guiding light for the Wise Men of the East. They have studied all the stars in the heavens for years and are waiting for the star of a new king to rise. You are that star."
"I am?"
"As soon as you appear, the Wise Men will follow you and make their long journey toward the West to find the Holy Child King."
"But, Messenger, how will I know where to lead these Wise Men?"
"I'm coming to that part, Little One. You are to have a new name: 'The Star of Bethlehem.' On the sacred night you will come to rest and cast your beams down on Bethlehem of Juda, the ancient City of David. That is where the Holy Infant will appear."
"On the sacred night? How will I know which night is the sacred night?"
"There will be signs. You will see a weary young couple from the village of Nazareth coming to the Bethlehem inn. The woman, whose name is Mary, will be great with child. But there will be no room in the inn. Mary and her husband Joseph will have to take shelter in a stable.
"Also, you will see shepherds in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night.
"And the angel of the Lord will appear to the shepherds and the glory of the Lord will shine round about them."
"Won't the shepherds be frightened?"
"Oh yes. They will tremble with great fear, but the angel will turn their fear to joy when he says, 'I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord! Go to the City of David, the Bethlehem of Judah. There, in a manger, wrapped in swaddling, sleeps the newborn Babe.'"
The little star was delighted with all he was hearing.
"I will get to shine down on all that?"
"That, and more. A multitude of the angels in heaven will come down to earth and sing 'Glory to God in the Highest! Peace on Earth! Good Will to Men!'"
"Tell me more about the Holy Child King."
"His coming was foretold on earth centuries ago. God revealed through ancient prophets that 'His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.'
"And though he will be born in a stable, he will rule a kingdom that has no end."
"Oh, then," said Little One, in much despair, "to shine for HIM, I should be big and brilliant. But I am not. I am small and plain."
"Do not be troubled," the messenger replied. "He who alone spread out the heavens and made the sun and the moon and the stars can change you into the most splendid star ever seen in the sky."
The messenger left the little star then, for thy had reached the eastern sky of the earth.
That night, just as the little star began to shine, he suddenly became like a new star. Big. Very big. Still bigger. And brilliant. So brilliant he could scarcely believe he was still himself.
The three Wise Men of the East saw him.
"Look!" they exclaimed to each other. "His star!"
"This is it! The one we've waited for!''
"The star of the Great King!"
"It's the most brilliant star ever to appear in the heavens!"
"The most beautiful!"
And immediately the three gathered up their goods and their tents and their treasures, saddled their camels, and started on the journey.
As weeks and months and one year and two years passed by, the Wise Men kept following their beautiful new star. They stopped at many watering places and villages and cities. At each place they would say: "Where is he who is born the King? We have seen his Star in the East and have come to worship him."
Some people would tell them one thing, some another. Finally the Wise Men stopped in Jerusalem to inquire at the palace of Herod the king. But their star moved on toward Bethlehem.
The next night the star knew that the sacred time had come to Bethlehem; for he saw all the things the messenger had described begin to happen.
He watched Mary wrap her firstborn Son in swaddling clothes and lay him in a manger, and he heard her whisper to Joseph, "Let us call his name JESUS."
The star then looked out toward the fields and there he saw the host of angels come to the shepherds to tell them their Saviour was born. And he heard the shepherds glorifying God as they hurried to Bethlehem to worship the Child.
Soon the star revealed himself again to the Wise Men, who were then leaving Jerusalem. They rejoiced with exceeding great joy when they reached the Holy Child King. Kneeling down before him, they opened their treasures and gave him gifts: gold and frankincense and myrrh.
Then the shepherds went back to their flocks, the Wise Men withdrew to their tents, and all was silent in Bethlehem. The star kept shining down on the stable where the Holy Babe slept.
Not long after midnight the star noticed two angels descending from heaven. He thought that strange.
"Where are you going?" he whispered.
The first angel whispered back, "I'm going to warn Joseph, in a dream, to take Mary and the Child and flee toward Egypt to escape from the wicked King Herod in Jerusalem. He will try to destroy the Child."
"I will appear in the dreams of the Wise Men," whispered the second angel. "I must tell them to return to their land by another way and not go through Jerusalem--because of the cruel Herod."
And so the star kept shining and watching. After Joseph and Mary and the Babe had slipped away, and after the Wise Men had departed, the star began to wonder what was to become of him. He had forgotten to ask the messenger if he was to shine down on Bethlehem for all time to come. He wished that he could shine for the Holy Child forever.
Before dawn, the messenger came to the star.
"Well done, Star of Bethlehem," he declared.
"Oh, Messenger, this was a wonderful thing the Creator let me do! Of all the stars in the universe, I am the most blessed. Where am I to go now?"
Before the messenger could answer, the star began to plead with him. "Please don't say that I will become one of the wandering stars and go into the blackness of darkness for ever!"
"No, Star of Bethlehem, you are not to burn out and become what men who study the stars will one day call a 'black hole.' You will return to your constellation, there to shine and sing again. But your light will be much less brilliant that it is now. In fact, it will grow so dim that men will not be able to see you with the naked eye. However--"
"But-- But-- What will become of all my wonderful new light?"
"Let me finish what I was saying, Star of Bethlehem. Your new radiant light will be shining forever, on earth. It will--"
"On earth? Oh, I'm glad! Very glad! Where? How?"
"Your new light will shine from the eyes of every person who knows and worships the Holy Child born this night in Bethlehem."
And that is why it was that the beautiful Star of Bethlehem disappeared from the sky.
And that is why it is--to this day--that of the Seven Stars (in the cluster called Pleiades) only six are visible without a telescope.
And that is why it is that on Christmas Day, and all other days, those who worship the Christ Child have a soft and shining light in their eyes.
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