Before the Wise Men gave Presents

"The wise men came to the house where the child was with his mother Mary. They bowed down and worshiped  him.Then they opened the boxes of gifts they had brought for him.They gave him treasures of gold,frankincense and myrrh"-Matthew 2:11 ERV

As a child, I was quite fond of Christmas plays and the Nativity story and always loved to participate in them,  I was therefore thrilled when an opportunity arose last year to accompany a friend of mine to watch her son perform in his school's Christmas play but was disappointed as the Nativity play had a different twist to it. I am not sure if it was in a bid of political correctness but this particular play was titled "Gabriel's Big Break" with a greater emphasis on how the Angel Gabriel had always wanted to deliver a message but never got a chance.He finally got a break when he was  asked to visit Mary following the failure of  another angel  to do the job. I expressed my displeasure on the feedback form.Thankfully,I believe the feedback from other parents also may have contributed  to the  reversion of  the play this year to the original version with Mary, Joseph,Jesus and the visit from the wise men.

As we know,these wise men were led by the star till they eventually found the child Jesus (Matthew 2:1-12).I have always thought that the wise men just brought physical gifts and mentioned it in my previous article,"Christmas Presents or Presence" but a closer look at the verse shows that just before the wise men presented any gifts, they worshiped. Their gifts  were an overflow from the worship experience. 

It is one thing to have brought gifts to a child and quite another to worship the child who had not done anything for them.But they were able to worship because they knew the true worth of the child in front of them.They recognized this was the King that the star represented. Someone has  rightly said that our worship is linked to worth-ship which is how much  value or the amount of worth we place on something.

So this season, as we seek to emulate the wise choices the wise men made,let us remember that before they gave gifts, they worshiped.Let our gifts to the King flow always from a heart of worship for he loves cheerful givers(2 Corinthians 9:6) as well as desires true worshipers(John 4:23).

Merry Christmas
Grace Tom-Lawyer