The Meaning of the Gifts of the Magi

Matthew records the story of the Wise Men, students of astronomy, who knew the ancient Jewish prophecies. They came from lands east of Israel, possible Chaldea, Persia, or Arabia, to worship the newborn King of the Jews. Wealthy, educated, skillful in their craft, and respected, these men journeyed by camel across the hot, dry deserts, braving many perils, to bow before this Child who was born a king.

Courtesy Google.com

No other child in history has been born a king. A young prince must first be educated and trained in the duties of kingship. And the king must die before the prince can be crowned king.

Not so with Jesus. The King of kings and Lord of lords, the Creator of all things, left the palaces of heaven, where He has been King from eternity past, to come to a lowly stable to be laid in a manger, a feeding trough for animals, that He might show us the Father.

The Wise Men recognized His kingship. They had seen his star as it rose. Many have speculated as to the nature of the Star of Bethlehem, but God had prepared a supernatural phenomenon. As they studied the heavens, the Wise Men observed something unusual. They knew the planets and the stars, but this was unique, and it prompted them to leave what they were engaged in to follow the light.

They wanted to worship the newborn King. To worship is to acknowledge the worth of, to give adoration, to express reverence, awe, and gratitude. The purpose of true worship is to bless God, not to get blessed. The wonder of worship is that as we bless God, He blesses us. True worship--to worship God in spirit and truth--brings great comfort to our hearts.

When the Wise Men entered the house where the young child was with Mary, His mother, they fell down and worshiped Him. Then, out of their own treasures they offered Him gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. These three gifts reveal three great truths that comfort, uplift, and undergird us.

Gold Courtesy Google.com

The first gift, gold, is significant in that it was a symbol of royalty--a fitting gift for a king. It recognized the sovereignty of the One to whom it was given, the Christ-Child, that He is the Sovereign Lord.

What does it mean that God is sovereign? First, no one controls God but He himself. But He is no despot. He rules over all people and all things with justice, wisdom, and grace. Because He is a benevolent sovereign, we can depend on Him and trust Him with the things we cannot understand.

Philippians 2:10 tells us that sooner or later everyone shall bow the knee and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. The choice we have is when. If we, like the Wise Men, bow before Him in this life, we receive eternal life with Him. If we refuse to bow before Him in this life, we will be forced to acknowledge Him as Lord in the afterlife, but we will spend eternity separated from the light of His presence. The choice is ours. Will we be wise like the Wise Men?

Frankincense Courtesy Google.com

The second gift of the Wise Men was frankincense, a whitish resin or gum-like substance taken from a tree and used in worship in the Tabernacle and Temple. Burning coals were taken from the altar of burnt offering and placed on the altar of incense in front of the holy of holies. The incense was sprinkled on these coals and a sweet, fragrant smoke arose toward heaven, symbolizing the prayers of the people of God.

The altar of incense in the Tabernacle had four horns, one in each corner. Horns in the Bible represent power. These horns indicate that we have power in prayer. The altar was crowned with a ledge of gold that kept the burning coals of incense from falling to the ground. The crown gives us confidence that our prayers will not fall to the ground; they are never wasted.

Golden rings were attached through which poles were inserted so the altar of incense could be carried whenever the Israelites traveled. This reminds us that wherever we go, we can touch God in prayer, and He will hear us no matter where we are.

Giving frankincense to Jesus at His birth foreshadowed that Jesus is our great intercessor, our great High Priest, who receives our prayers and intercedes on our behalf to the Father. As the incense was placed on the altar by man, and as it burns, ascends upward, so our prayers begin in our hearts and ascend heavenward to God. Jesus is waiting to receive our praise, our petitions, and our supplications.

Frankincense reminds us that God wants to hear how we feel. He wants us to release our burdens and offer up our innermost groanings to Him. With the Psalmist we can say, "Accept my prayer as incense offered to you, and my upraised hands as an evening offering" (141:2, NLT).

Myrrh Courtesy Google.com

The third gift of the Wise Men was myrrh, a bitter substance obtained from trees in Arabia. Myrrh was used for embalming the dead. Thus, this gift symbolizes the suffering and sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for our sins. Because He faced the same testings we do and experienced what it was to be human, Jesus, the Son of God, identifies with every pain we suffer. He feels our infirmities and the the seasons of pain and sorrow we all suffer. And just as Jesus was sustained by His Father in sorrow and did not sin, so He will sustain us in our suffering.

When William Barclay, the great Scottish preacher, buried his 21-year-old son who had drowned, he said, "God did not stop the accident, but He did still the storm within my heart, so that somehow my wife and I came through that terrible time on our own two feet. When things like that happen, there are just three things to be said: One, to understand them is impossible. Two, Jesus does not offer us solutions to them. What He does offer us is His strength to accept what we cannot understand. And three, the fatal reaction is a grudge against God, but the one saving reaction is to go on living and find in the presence of Jesus the strength and courage to meet life with steady eyes, knowing the comfort that God too is afflicted in my affliction."

That's the message of myrrh--that "God too is afflicted in my affliction."

In the uncertainty of this New Year, may we remember the gifts of the Magi. Gold reminds us that we can trust in the sovereignty of God. Frankincense prompts us to tell the Lord in prayer whatever is on our hearts. And myrrh assures us that God too suffers in our afflictions.

May you have a blessed New Year!

The Christmas I Learned to Pray

It was December 1950 or 1951 in Juneau, Alaska, and I was 5 or 6 years old. Most families did all their shopping by catalog in territorial Alaska. We kids spent hours pouring over the Sears and Roebuck Christmas catalog, studying page after page of toys and dolls, looking for what we wanted for Christmas. 

As I turned a page, my eyes fell upon the most beautiful doll I'd ever seen--a bride doll dressed in lace and tulle, a veil over long, blond curls that could be combed and styled.

Courtesy Google.com

I ran to show my mother. "This is what I want for Christmas!"

With sadness tingeing her voice, she said, "Oh, honey, you'll have to pray and ask Jesus for that doll. We don't have enough money to buy presents this year."

My parents operated the Bethel Beach children's Home home by faith. As many as thirteen children, nine of them under five and two babies in cribs--orphans, neglected or abandoned children, and others with only one parent and no one else to care for them when the parent worked--lived in a big house on the beach just outside of town. Some parents were able to pay a little; those children placed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs or welfare were subsidized. 

Bethel Beach Children's Home in Juneau, Alaska, c. 1950
I am the girl in the back row next to my dad

My dad worked full time to support our family and the home while my mother cared for all the children, did the cooking, the laundry, and the cleaning, usually without other adult help. Both of them provided us with a lot of love and Christian training.

That year, every night until December 24, when I knelt to say my bedtime prayers, I asked Jesus to give me that beautiful bride doll for Christmas. My request wasn't very significant to anyone but me. You might even say it was selfish. It certainly would not change the course of history if I didn't receive that doll. 

Courtesy Google.com

But that Christmas morning when, wide-eyed with expectation, we children tripped down the stairs and peeked into the large living room, we discovered gaily wrapped presents under the tree for each child. The tags all said, "From Jesus." When I unwrapped my gift, the beautiful doll I'd prayed for lay inside.

Years later, my mother told me the rest of the story. That Christmas Eve, Behrends, the only department store in Juneau, had called my parents to come down to the store and pick out gifts for all the children in their children's home. Among the unsold toys she found a bride doll for me.

That Christmas, this young girl learned that the God who created the Universe cares about every detail of her life, including what she wanted for Christmas. And to this day, that sense of my Heavenly Father's love has never left me.

The Man Who Knew How to Pray

It was time for breakfast in the orphanage at Ashley Downs, England, but there was no food. Not only was there no food in the kitchen, but there was no money is the home's account.

A small girl, whose father was a close friend of Mueller, was visiting in the home. The director, George Mueller, took her hand. "Come and see what our Father will do."

Dining Room at Ashley Downs

In the dining room, long tables were set with empty plates and mugs. Mueller prayed, "Dear Father, we thank You for what You are going to give us to eat."

Immediately, they heard a knock at the door. When they opened it, there stood the local baker. "Mr. Mueller, I couldn't sleep last night. Somehow I felt that you had no bread for breakfast, so I got up a 2 o'clock and baked fresh bread. Here it is."

Mueller thank him and gave praise to God. Soon, a second knock was heard. It was the milkman. "My cart has broken down in front of the orphanage. I want to give the milk to the children so I can empty the cart and repair it."

Why could George Mueller pray with such confidence? Because God had taken care of the children many times previously.

George Mueller (1805-1898)

George was born in Prussia (now Germany). His father gave him a lot of money, but George spent it in "riotous living," just as the Prodigal Son in Jesus' parable. One night, a friend invited him to a meeting at a house. George didn't know it was a prayer meeting. As he listened to the Bible reading , he felt conviction and repented of his sins. For this first time, he felt true happiness. He studied for the ministry and went to England as an evangelist.

There, he discovered many homeless children. As he prayed asking God what he could do for them, he knew God would help him provide a home for them. Although he had told no one of his plans, people began sending him dishes, furniture, bedding--all the things he would need to start a home for orphans, including money for rent and workers to help care for the children. And Mueller scrupulously sent receipts to all donors.

But more needy children kept asking him to help them. Soon, he was renting four houses and caring for more than 100 children. Neighbors began to complain about so many children.

Mueller began to pray for land in the country. For 35 days he prayed every morning that God would send him the money he needed. On the 36th day, people began to send him the money. In two years, he had built a home large enough to house 300 children.

Five new Orphans' Homes at Ashley Downs, England

More children asked for help. In the next few years, Mueller prayed for the resources needed to build a total of five homes that could feed, house, and educate 2,000 children. It took a lot of food and clothing to provide for that many children. When Mueller ran out of money, he'd pray. God never let the children go hungry.

My grandparents, pioneer missionaries to Alaska, often spoke of George Mueller. He never asked for money or financial support for his work of housing, feeding, clothing, and educating more than 10,000 orphans in his lifetime. In addition, he traveled around the world doing missionary work. He only prayed to God for the supply of his needs for his ministry.

My grandparents too practiced living by faith just as he did. As a young person, I read biographies of many great men and women of God--Martin Luther, John Wesley, Adoniram Judson, David Livingston, Mary Slessor, David Brainard, Dwight L. Moody, to name a few. My grandparents' stories and these stories of men and women of faith influenced me to dedicate my life to full-time Christian service too. And God has supplied all our needs.

How has God met your needs? I'd love to hear your stories.

Healed! Part 2

Emily Spencer was scheduled for surgery to remove the part of her colon that was leaking into her abdomen.
With peace in her heart, she entered the operating room the next morning. The doctors were looking at her X-rays, and she could see where the colon showed the barium leaking into her abdomen. She prepared herself to awaken to find she'd had a colostomy.

Her husband was prepared for a lengthy wait, so he was surprised to see the surgeon come into the waiting room so soon. "Mr. Spencer," he said, "another Surgeon was there ahead of me. I could see where the colon had been diseased, but it is completely healed. All I did was remove a cluster of adhesions and make a few minor repairs elsewhere, but her colon is healthy."

Emily wasn't out of surgery but a short time, though, when she began having an allergic reaction to the anesthesia. At one point, she lost all blood pressure and other vital signs. If she had been having the lengthier surgery as planned, she probably would have died.

Her husband called us. Immediately, I activated the ladies prayer chain. By 5 o'clock, Emily's condition had stabilized, although she was kept in intensive care for observation for a couple of days.

From then on, her recovery was rapid. In 4 weeks, she was back in church. She said, "I know the Lord spared my life because He has something more for me to do for Him."

This ministry of our local congregation to one of our members greatly strengthened the bonds of love and fellowship within our church. Since Emily was so well known in the community, and she boldly witnessed to everyone about her healing, our new church was also elevated in its standing in the eyes of the community.

Praise God that even in hard trials He is working and wants to use them to build His Church and our faith!

Healed!

In mid-October 1979, Emily Spencer, whose story I told in the previous three blogs, began having severe abdominal pain. The doctor put her in the hospital for tests. She had had diverticulosis for over 6 years and had had 6 inches of her colon removed 5 years previously.

The tests revealed a flare up of the condition and an abscess in one of the diverticula. The doctor put her on antibiotics to see if that would cure the abscess, but he warned that surgery would probably be necessary.

My husband was out of town when Emily went into the hospital, but I took two men from our church into her hospital room to anoint her with oil according to James  5:14-16. That was on Thursday. By Sunday, Emily felt so good she wanted to go home.

On Monday, when the doctor examined her, he was amazed. . He had said it was unlikely that the antibiotic treatment would be successful, but the abscess had already cleared up so quickly he called it miraculous.

The doctor told her that she still needed surgery since the X-rays showed that her bowel was leaking into her abdomen. He was afraid that peritonitis would set in, and that could be fatal. This diagnosis was confirmed by three doctors.

The doctor planned to remove the diseased portion of her colon. Due to the previous surgery, a temporary colostomy would probably be necessary.

Emily was released from the hospital and told to build up her strength for the surgery scheduled in 2 weeks. It had to be postponed for 2 more weeks due to some difficult circumstances at home.

All during this time, the people of Glove Cities Assembly of God continually prayed for Emily's healing. At first, she still had pain and couldn't seem to regain her strength. Then one Tuesday at Ladies Bible Study, everyone remarked on how much better she looked. That's when Emily realized that she was feeling better and had gained back the weight she had lost.

But the doctor still felt she needed surgery. The day before the surgery, Pastor Conti anointed her with oil and prayed for God's will to be done in the entire situation.

What would the doctors find? To be continued...