Every year about this time, television weathercasters "track" Santa on his travels. Almost as predictably, astronomers will appear on television trying to explain what the Star of Bethlehem, which guided the three wise men to the baby Jesus, may have been.
It's an odd quest. The point of the Christmas Story is that the Star was special, unique, even supernatural. In that case, astronomers, then and now, would be at a loss to explain it. Further, the story we have of Jesus' birth that references a star was written, as far as scholars can tell, decades after Calgary. There was also a literary tradition in that culture at that time to associate the birth of a major personage with some spectacular natural event-- an earthquake, an eclipse, the appearance of a comet. Or, the appearance of a giant, beautiful guide star that stood over a small town.
So, will science ever be able to explain the Christmas Star? That's very much open to question. Did such a star actually exist, or did a devout Gospel writer, looking back on the life of his Savior, feel inspired to provide that life with an appropriate beginning? We may never know.
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