Day 12: How Real is the Meaning?

By now, the Three Kings are almost to Bethlehem, and the Christmas season is drawing to a close. But the Three Kings (actually, “wise men” according to Matthew’s Gospel) aren’t just bringing their famous three gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. They bring with them another set of questions that we have to wrestle with a bit if we are going to see Christmas clearly. The story is pretty and the ideas are rich. But what actually happened in Bethlehem some two thousand years ago?  How much of the Christmas story is “real,” and how much of both this story—and ultimately the entire record of the scriptures—is historically accurate?