Three Very Wise Men

As I was emptying the trash basket in the guest bathroom this morning, I noticed the wise men I had placed on the windowsill having some sort of a conversation. I didn't mean to eavesdrop but I just couldn't help myself. It seems that they were concerned as to where they should be. The Creche they had visited on the other end of the windowsill had been removed weeks ago and they had noticed that all signs of the season of Epiphany had also disappeared. "Good grief," I heard one remark, "We must be in the Lenten Season." Another replied, "That will never do! I think it's time we made our way home."

A bit later I peeped in to see what had transpired. Two of them were engaged in a deep conversation while the 3rd was being completely excluded. I thought it best to shut the door quietly and let them work this out - after all, they don't call them the "wise men" for nothing, do they?

After lunch I ventured into the bathroom once again and was shocked to see that they weren't even talking to one another. Oh Dear! It's always difficult to come to some sort of agreement when there are 3 voices to be heard from, don't you think?

But everything seems to happen for a reason and while his back was turned toward his companions wise man #2 noticed the cover of Thomas Merton's "Thoughts in Solitude" that was also sitting on the windowsill. He wondered if it might contain some answers or at least send them in the right direction? So he opened it and soon the other wise men were reading over his shoulder. And here is what they read: "To love solitude and to seek it does not mean constantly travelling from one geographical location to another." Wow! Perhaps there was no need to travel at all? Perhaps they were meant to just "be" right where God had placed them. After all, it wasn't such a bad place. They had good light from the nearby window, excellent reading material, and a constant flow of "visitors". And it was only their thoughts about having to be somewhere else that were making them anxious.

And as they read on they came across this: "A man knows when he has found his vocation when he stops thinking about how to live and begins to live." And that is what the 3 wise men decided to do. They, like us, have no idea what the future holds. I may eventually put them away in their Christmas/Epiphany box, where they will remain until next year, but until then I too will enjoy their company when I enter the guest bathroom, reminding myself that life comes not from what is stored inside my head but from what comes out of my heart. The End