The three gifts of the magi given to the baby Christ all represented Christ's roles in His relation to man.
This is something that I never really knew, and I find very interesting. I mean, I knew that the magi brought three gifts. (Mainly because I set up the nativity scene every Christmas) And I knew they all stood for something, but I had no idea of the depth of their symbolism.
So this seemingly simple assignment (it was not so simple for me, hence the reason I was asking for help and explainations) turned into one of those moments where you feel like you should be in a movie. Because even though nothing really makes sense, everything just makes sense. I'm sitting in south side at almost 3 in the morning with three guys discussing the meanings of gifts given to Christ, their representation of Christ's role's in relation to man, and their relevance to our lives paired with which gift we can connect with the most.
Brought together by nicotine and greasy food. One quick question turns into a drawn out discussion, interrupting the flow of everyone's concentration.
See what I mean?
So good.
So this is a small overview of what I learned. haha...
Gold is a gift given on behalf of the King to his subjects. Gold represents Jesus' reign as King... obviously. Frankincense, which is something used in the temples for worship, represents Christ's divine nature and role as most high priest. Myrrh, which is an ingredient used in holy anointing oil represents His role as the ultimate sacrifice for the sins of man.
Trying to relate and connect each of these things to my own life was kind of complicated. I could see the connection between the gift and Christ's role, but had NO idea how in the world to connect that to my life currently. Thank God for intelligent friends. So the way Joel helped me understand it was that since myrrh represents His ultimate sacrifice, then what thing is it that I sacrifice for God? For Gold, since that is a representation of His place as king, what is one thing or way that I submit to Him? And last, for frankincense, since this represents his divine nature, how is He intervening in my life? What is something bigger than myself that I cannot handle by myself alone?
It would take way too long to go through each of those... but the last question that we talked about was what gift we connected with most. Frankincense was the gift that I could relate to the most out of the three, Joel said frankincense also, Jerome and Steve said Myrrh. But I think the reason that Frankincense is the one that stands out the most to me, is because right now.. where I am at... I am reminded more than ever that there is so much I cannot do on my own. That is hard to admit, but I need God's divine intervention. In areas of my own life, my own heart, in my family, in my friends, everywhere. I need Him to do work and make changes that are only possible through Him. Myrrh, representing the sacrifice, stands out too for obvious reasons, Christ's sacrifice for my sins is still something that I cannot wrap my mind around. Although, I do not ever want to be able to wrap my mind around that. I welcome the mystery and the awe.
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