Wednesday 06 January 2021

Psalm 72

Background

I guess we have all heard the joke that goes: "If the three wise men had been three wise women, the gifts would have been nappies, warm blankets and a casserole!"

Certainly, we don’t know how many wise men, or Magi, or kings, or travellers there were. We make the assumption there were three because of the three gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. 

These are not perhaps the gifts you and I would have chosen to take to a newborn and his family. But they are expensive and precious gifts. Gold, of course, represents great wealth and is a gift befitting a king. Frankincense, from a tree bark, was used in worship to allow prayers to ascend to God. Myrrh was an expensive resin used in embalming the dead amongst other things. The gifts symbolise wealth, worship and life itself.

As ever, this poignant story at the end of the Christmas celebrations causes me to stop and wonder what I will offer to God during this coming year. Will it be my finances and my possessions? Will it be my worship? Or will it be the whole of my life – all I am, all I have and all I can ever be?

 
To Ponder:

• If you had visited the newborn Christ child, what gift would you have taken?
• What gift will you bring to God this coming year?