THE LEGEND OF THE STAR OF
BETHLEHEM
by
Jewell Ellen Smith
Copyright © 1986 Jewell
Ellen Smith. Please send any questions or comments to Jewell’s older son Dr.
David Smith at
DSmith1204@aol.com,
Church groups may perform any adaptation of this without payment. Scripture
quotations are from the King James Version.
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.
Note: This story first
appeared as the Sunbonnet Soliloquy column of September 1984. Mrs. Smith notes, “This ‘legend’ I made up myself!”
–Ed.