During the holiday season, one of the most rewarding experiences we participate is in giving gifts. Often when we are trying to make our selection. We picture who the gift is for and try to picture in our mind how the gift might be used. After we had made our selections, many of us in past days had to travel long distances to make our holiday visits and exchanges.We carefully wrapped and packed our suitcases (hoping the airline didn’t lose them), or we secured them in the trunk so as not to be broken, or damaged along the journey. This year because of the virus, Amazon, UPS, FedEX and the Post Office will be entrusted with delivering our selections!
Imagine, if you were to have to make a gift selection for an especially important person. Maybe a head of state or someone famous. What if it were for a king? How would you go about making your selection? How much time would we need to perform such a task? How could we ever be certain we had made the right choice? Consider there might be others who might be presenting a gift as well. Would we compare our selections? Perhaps the gift so carefully reflected on and selected would somehow now seem less or pale in comparison.
The scriptures tell us that when the wise men saw the star they rejoiced with exceeding great joy! Beyond the glamour of royalty, the wise men’s presence lends to the nativity. We need to take the time to reflect how big of a role faith played in their act of the gift giving. None of us really know when the wise men received word that they would be departing on a journey. We don’t know when or how quickly they packed or how even how they went about selecting a gift worthy of a king. Sure there were cultural norms of that day but specifically choosing would be a challenge for sure.
At the most, most of us in past days may have traveled a few hundred miles during the holiday season in a matter of hours, thanks to planes, trains and automobiles. Obviously with Covid-19 many will stay put this year. The wise men took 2 years to make their journey toward Bethlehem. They carried their royal treasures over many difficult miles. It isn’t hard to imagine that the gift could have been damaged along the way. If ever you have had to entrust a valuable to USP or UPS for your holiday connection, you know what I am talking about. It isn’t beyond imagination to ponder that the gift could have been sold along the way to increase travel comfort or to secure better or safer lodging. Perhaps the gift could have been bartered for something more profitable or exotic to the eye. It is even feasible to comprehend how a traveler weary and fatigued, might lack sound judgment and get cheated in a foreign country. Certainly we all understand the risk of theft along back roads and remote places.
But the scriptures are clear. The wise men arrived with gifts intact and were presented in royal splendor to the newborn king in a stable no less.All this pageantry for a party in a barn? No red carpet or valet service for donkeys and camels? I love that God is innately anticlimactic at times to teach us about humility. I like to think that Frankincense and Myrrh covered up the smell in the stable. If we are thinking it didn’t have a stench, we are romanticizing the nativity. If ever you have mucked out a barn, you get it. Think about the faith it required for the wise men to accomplish this task. Were they able to anticipate at the onset the great distance they would have to travel to see their assignment through? Consider after all the travel and time, the lengths they would have to go to protect their gift selection. Then, they would be challenged to lay it down freely without reservation in an intimate act of worship. I don’t know if you have ever had the experience of getting attached to a gift you selected for someone else but I sure have. The longer it is in my possession, sometimes the more I liked it and began to wish I had purchased one for myself. Selfish, right? Ever change your mind and keep it or go buy something else instead? Or at least purchase a duplicate? Hmmm— just asking for a friend…
Today, we as God’s children have the same opportunity to increase our faith just as the wise men. At different times and places along our journey in life, God has asked all of us to make a “gift selection” to present to Christ. I have not been asked for Frankincense or myrrh, but often been asked for time, talents or other gifts God has placed within me. I am not usually given the foresight of how the gift will be used or when but still God asks me just like the wisemen, to lay them down freely without reservation.The beautiful part is if I answer the call by faith and make the journey into sacrifice, I enter into worship with the King , Himself. The intimacy that result calls me to a deeper love for Christ and an exceedingly great joy! It transforms my perspective. This experience reminds me He is King. Over everything…period. He is a just and Sovereign ruler has the whole world in His more than capable hands. This is how peace and goodwill manifest itself. Without acknowledging that Jesus is King, there is no true peace and goodwill will be frail at best.
This year it is good to remember. Despite all that is around us, God can lead us into that place of worship if we would follow the star, confess to the world that we have found Him! As the scriptures tell us, Born in the city of David, a Savior who is Christ the Lord.
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