Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh. These are the gifts the magi gave to the boy Jesus. Today, we can try to interpret how the gift relate to Jesus’ kingship, godhood, and sacrifice. However, let us imagine this family scenario for a moment.
Imagine that same night the gift was given, an angel appear to Joseph to ask him to leave in haste. He had no time to pack all their staff. He can’t pack all his carpentry tools. He have to quickly get his family out of Bethlehem. Aside from his family, I’m sure he would pick up whatever is the most precious and important, which include these three gifts. Arriving to Egypt, these three gift can be use by Joseph to help them buy food, house, and start his living again as a carpenter in a foreign land.
Like Joseph, God may have provided us resources we do not know why.
- God may provide us “gold”, resources that we obviously know how valuable it is.
- God may provide us “frankincense”, resources that we do not know how it would be relevant in our current situation. “I cannot use frankincense in my carpentry,” we might say if we are Joseph.
- Worst, God may provide us “myrrh”, resources that looks offensive or insulting to us. “An embalmment for the dead as a gift for a young family with a child? Are you serious?” we might think if we are Joseph.
However, God has a purpose in everything He gave in our life, all the life experience He allow us to undergo even experience we do not know how it will be relevant to our life or may even be offensive. But we must continue to trust God, for through those experience God will help us through in the future.
