Thought of the Day !!

(The wise men) entered the house where the child and his mother, Mary, were, and they fell down before him and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure chests and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
Matthew 3:11 (NLT)

How many nativity scenes have you seen that had three wise men in them? First of all, we don't know how many wise men there actually were. There were three gifts mentioned, but the bible never says that only three men carried them. I heard a pastor jokingly say once that he thought there were 82. Who knows where he got that number. Then there is the fact that the shepherds were gone and Jesus was moved to a "house" instead of a stable.

The fact that the wise men have made it into our nativity scenes is not a big priority of mine to complain about though. I mean there are lots of other things wrong in this world of ours. If that was the only thing worth pointing out, we'd call this place Heaven instead of earth.

Today, I'd like to focus on the gift that they brought to Jesus. You may think that I should have said gifts. Were there not three? Actually...No. There was only one gift brought that day. Gold and frankincense and myrhh may have been given. And if you make me get technical, I guess they were gifts. But the only "true" gift was the gift of worship. They came from afar not to pay off or give some sweet smelling perfume to this king. They came to give the gift of themselves.

How about us this Christmas? What will we give Jesus? Will it be gold, frankincense or myrrh? How about a diamond ring, new cell phone or X-box? Will you try to give him a gift certificate somewhere so he can pick out his own gift? Or will you give him the gift of yourself...the gift of worship, repentance and love?

In the love of Christ,
greg