Read Matthew 2:1-12 with your family.

Did you realize that Matthew’s story does not have the shepherds or the angels announcing Jesus’ birth? Sometime, a long time ago, the church started putting the stories of Matthew 2 and Luke 2 together to make the story we all know about Jesus’ birth.

Matthew tells us that the Magi didn’t arrive until Jesus was a toddler or preschooler, and that Jesus was living in a house in Bethlehem with his parents.

And who were these Magi? Well, we aren’t completely sure but Bible scholars think they were well educated people with some authority in the religious community in Persian (modern Iraq), who spent their time studying early science including astronomy. They knew about the Hebrew prophesy of a new Messiah, and they read in the stats that it was time. They started their journey to Bethlehem, travelling in a caravan with many more people than just three, and arrived in time to celebrate Jesus as a small child.