Marco Polo says that in his travels he came to a village in Persia whose inhabitants claimed it to be the starting point of the Wisemen's journey. According to the villagers' tale, there were three Wisemen: a young man, a middle-aged man, and an older man. They set out together to find the promised Saviour, but on reaching their destination, they went in separately. The young man found a young Saviour, and each of the others found the Saviour to be of his own age. Later, when they went in together, they saw the babe Jesus.
This fanciful tale has a point: the Christ, the impersonal Saviour from all that is antagonistic to well-being and joy in living, is available to all men at all times— available to each according to his need and at the point where that need arises. When we are in trouble from sin or sickness, or when we seek progress, or when we want to use more fully the capacities we know are in us, are we wise enough to look outside our personal characteristics and ordinary abilities for the help we need?
A small boy was trying to lift a large stone. His father came by and asked, "Son, are you using all your strength?" The boy answered that he was, but the father replied: "No, you are not. You have not asked me to help." Are we wise enough to require of ourselves reliance upon a strength not our own?
