…”the Magis’ gift giving was an ostentatious act for individuals who were not followers of God.”
I have always been a pretty healthy person. I was a high school Varsity athlete in two sports, have remained moderately active as an adult and have generally taken my health seriously. But, this year…this year has been the year of facing and overcoming health challenges that were outside of my control. It felt very personal and there was such uncertainty for me, bringing me to a whole new level of trusting God in ways I hadn’t needed to or seen a need for before.
I went into the year knowing I was goin
g to have to have a Total Thyroidectomy and that it was going to disrupt my whole life, for the rest of my life. I had no other choices available, and there was a lot of grief and loss with the whole process. No sooner had I recovered and finally got levels right with my thyroid medicine, I found myself facing a second major surgery that turned out to be greater than the first surgery.
I went from feeling in control of my health again to suddenly not, and within a few weeks I was scheduled for a partial hysterectomy that had unexpected elements to it that have me still down right now. A routine major surgery turned into the removal of a very large fibroid that was wrapped around my uterus and bladder and left an aftermath I am still healing from. Okay, enough of that. 🙂
My only point in sharing all of that is I have never considered having to surrender my body and health to God on the level I have before this year. Since myrrh is an embalming spice, a perfume, a deodorant, can be ingested with wine, used as a cosmetic, applied as a medicine to medicate pain, used by Queen Esther to beautify herself, and has numbing elements, I am sure you can also see the theme here. Every one of those uses points to the physical human body.
As you might imagine, from my mindset, when I began to read about myrrh and all that was related to it, it felt personal and relevant to my year in learning to trust God to lead me through the physical uncertainties that I walked through. What I learned about myrrh was the last piece in the gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, and made the depth of the Magis’ gifts very clear to me.
The gifts of the Magi—gold representing glory, frankincense reflecting worship, and myrrh representing our bodies, as the living sacrifice discussed in Romans 12, is an acknowledgement that God knows better what to do with our glory, our worship and our lives than we ever could. The truth is, we own all three things, and we can do whatever we want with them spending them any way we like. Giving all three to the Savior is ultimately the greatest act of worship a person could offer.
If you think about it, the Magis’ gift giving was an ostentatious act for individuals who were not followers of God. How bold of them to not even be known as being in the faith, and to actually be astrologists, and then to hunt down the newborn Savior and offer their greatest possessions, possibly symbolizing the things I have pointed out!!
Can you imagine how foolish they must have looked bringing gifts like these to new parents and a baby who were on the move? I wonder if gossip about this spread. I wonder what those who knew of their acts thought or said.
Were the Magi out of their minds?
Yes. Yes, they were. But, in all fairness, there must have been something that made them so sure of their actions that they just went for it. What an act of honor and abandon and willingness to give it all to Someone greater than anything they had ever found before!
So, what will I give? Am I willing to give any less than they did? Will I roll the dice and give up all my rights all over again?
I gave Jesus Christ my life once at 4 years old during a worship service at my childhood Nazarene church, again at 9 years old at our Nazarene Church camp, again in high school at a Brethren youth rally, and I have tried to live that out every day since.
Jesus Christ is worthy of nothing less than my glory, my worship and my life. So, this holiday, I will do it all over again, I will bring the same gifts as the Magi. But, this time I know even better what all that entails, knowing that He knows what to do with glory, worship and life better than I ever could.
What will you give?
kindlemyheartgod 