The Wise Men, New Testament

Sometimes, we crave more information, more anecdotes, more details about a given person or event told of in scripture. No event so fits this description more than the birth of Jesus, which is recorded in just two of the four gospels. If added information isn't in the text itself, people may simply make things up to improve the story.
Such is the case with the Wise Men, mentioned only in Matthew. The scriptures do not specify a number of these individuals, though they are referred to in the plural. No homeland is mentioned, no names are included, and the notion of them visiting Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus in the Bethlehem stable is also no doubt untrue, though it's easy to misunderstand without a careful reading.
What do we know about this little sub-story? The Wise Men are described as coming from the East, which isn't much help, since East of Judea could be as far as China. But they had some knowledge that the star they observed was related to the Israelite teaching of a future Messiah. Perhaps immediately, they set out to confirm this event.
We don't know where they started from or how long it took to get organized for this trip, but it would have been impossible for them to have arrived on the night of Jesus' birth. One clue that they traveled a long distance was their lack of knowledge about Herod's role in Judea. In modern terms he would have been the dictator of a Roman "puppet" state. Like all such rulers, he would have had no use for a competitor, either grown or an infant. Asking Herod about any new "King of the Jews" now seems very dangerous, even to the Wise Men themselves. Herod decided to enlist the aid of these foreigners, since his own advisers had done nothing to bring this matter to his attention.
No details are given, but the travelers achieve their goal of seeing for themselves what had taken place, though this probably took place back in Nazareth. We can only wonder at the reaction of Joseph and Mary, who are just starting to become used to unusual things happening in their lives. The gifts (gold, frankincense and myrrh) are delivered, but then never mentioned again. Was their value used to finance the flight into Egypt? Possibly. The Wise Men avoid trouble with Herod by following the instructions of a dream, completing their role in the scriptural record, though Herod curses them for skipping out of the country without aiding his lethal plan for removing this tiny threat to his power.
The lesson we may take from the Wise Men may not be electrifying, but it could prove useful. If, upon observing the star, they had merely turned knowingly to one another and said "Oh, it must be that great thing prophesied by the Jews. How wonderful!", we would know nothing of them today. Sometimes an event is so large that we must do all we can to be a part of it, lest the opportunity be lost forever.