Wise People Still Search

A wise man entered the town of Bethlehem, Illinois, seeking the Christ Child which he heard had been born near there.
Not certain as to where he might find such a Gift, he stopped at the Gas N Go and inquired if the clerk might have heard or seen such a thing. She thought him weirdly dressed, clearly not 'from here', and a threat - and had the manager toss him out.
Unruffled by the rude clerk the wise man pressed on, choosing to stop next at the local 'Home Cook'n' restaurant, where first he asked the hostess if she had heard or seen anything (and, of course, she hadn't), and then moved on to the table of local retirees who were there enjoying their $1 bottomless cups of coffee and solving the problems of the world. He asked if they, perhaps, had seen something of a bright light the night before or heard heavenly choirs or maybe had witnessed something of farmers coming in from the fields to see this Child. They quietly, quizzically, looked around at each other, taking a few moments to assess if any around the table believed anything of that which this stranger was asking them. The quiet consent of an 'informed disbelief' settled over the table and, being unwilling to discredit this odd man in public, they just went back to discussing the pluses and minuses of the Affordable Health Care Act, turning their backs and their attention away from the temporary distraction.
Rebuffed, but not dismayed, the wise man headed towards the door when, from a side booth, a voice pierced the morning air, "I saw the light of a nearby planet early last evening and when I stopped my tractor to look at it, I heard voices in the night drifting to me over the fields. It was the oddest damned thing. I couldn't help myself, I started the tractor back up, picked up the disc, folded the wings, and drove towards where I heard the voices singing. Oh, it wasn't here in town. I found them down County Road 700 North, about a mile and a half from here. Two homeless people and a newborn baby all huddled up in an old abandoned farm place. The neighbor keeps a few cows and sheep there in the barn, but there's no house there."
Sliding into the seat opposite the storyteller, the wise man waited for her to continue. "They said they had stopped here in town and asked for help at the Gas N Go and got thrown out for vagrancy, then they had come by here looking for a bite to eat and were directed to the dumpster out back and told to get out of town by the Sheriff. Then they just walked as far as they could before the Missus went into labor and delivered a Son.
You know, I would have thought they would have stopped by the church down the street . . . and I told them as much, but they said the lights were out, and when they knocked on the parsonage door, they were told to come back in the morning to apply for help from the ministerial alliance fund. The church quit putting up transients long ago, because too many took advantage of them and they just couldn't justify helping 'out-of-towners' when there were so many in need locally.
We are an odd lot around here, you know, so up on our Christian values and morals and such Scrooges with our lives and wealth. Kinda makes me ashamed of some of the things I've done over the years.
And then the real kicker was when that mother just laid her newborn Baby in my arms as though He was just waiting for me to hold Him. I swear to you, I couldn't look away from His face. He just shone so bright there in the dark. To tell you the truth, I'm not sure whether I was holding Him or He was holding me. All of the crap of my life just seemed to melt away there, looking into His eyes. I almost couldn't stand it.
There were a few others from around the fields who came in, too. Some on tractors, some walking, a few on four-wheelers, but all of us from the countryside. No townies. And we all just stood around in awe until the dad said they really needed to go. Old Maggie ran back across the road to her home and got some sandwiches and put some soup in an old thermos for them, and Orville offered them a lift in his grain truck if they could just wait for a bit for him to go home and get it. They couldn't, but they thanked him and all of us for sharing this special moment, then just walked on down the road as though driven by something none of us could understand."
"You don't know where they are now?" the wise man asked.
"No," the storyteller said, "but, I suspect if you head on North out of town and get away from all of us 'know-it-alls', you'll have a better chance of running across them where maybe they've found a place they're welcome. I wish you good luck in your search."
"What are you going to do now, now that you met them?" asked the wise man. "I'm not sure," said the storyteller, "but I think I am going to go back out and finish disking the field I was in last night. I wasn't sure what to do when they walked away, but felt compelled to come here and wait. Can't tell you why, but when you walked in I knew I had to tell you the story. I think you're the one I was to talk to. Now I can go back to what I was doing, but I don't think things in my life will ever be the same."
Then she got up and walked away leaving the wise man to wonder about what he heard.
"Someday I'll find Him," he thought, "and I pray I am only half as awed as that woman who got to see Him the night when He was born." And on walked the wise man, searching still for the One who transforms with a look.
May you find Him in your heart and may your life be changed forevermore.