Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh

The next member of the Nativity I would like to discuss is the gifts given to Christ by the wise-men. These gifts show to me that the wise-men loved and understood who Christ was.

Gold: Why gold? Well first of all it is worth a LOT. To me this gift of the wise-men was to show Christ they were willing to sacrifice a lot to know Him. They were willing to pay a price to find Christ in their lives and become better. When we come unto Christ we must be willing to sacrifice to allow the Atonement to work within us. An amazing example of this is Lamoni's father in the Book of Mormon. In Alma 22:15-18 Lamoni's father shows Aaron and God what he is willing to give up to know God. First it is his entire Kingdom; a pricy offer. But it is not until verse 18 that his "sacrifice" is accepted and Lamoni's father finds God. What was this sacrifice? ALL his sins. Let us search for ways we can sacrifice our sins to better know God for the more we become like Him the better we will know him. The second thing about the gold is that it was pure. For a long time we held gold as our currencies standard. I can think of no greater standard on this earth than Christ himself. He is the standard. He is the way. He is how we can learn to sacrifice our sins to Him and become as He is.

Frankincense: I learned in the Bible Dictionary that Frankincense was used by Priests during their sacrifices in the Temple. To me this shows that the wise-men truly knew Christ was here to be a sacrifice for our sins-to be the Lamb of God. They knew Christ's mission and what that meant for them-the price of their sins had been paid and it was now possible for them to return to God. To me this shows their deep gratitude and respect for this sacred gift of Christ.

Myrrh:  One of the uses for myrrh was for the embalming of the dead. Again the wise-men knew Christ. They knew he would die and then conquer death so that every single one of us can be Resurrected as He is and obtain immortality.





I know that the wise-men were giving the 2 year old Christ more than just "nice" gifts. They were showing their understanding, reverence, and devotion to Christ and His Atonement, example, and Resurrection for each of us. May we all follow their example and find meaningful gifts to give Christ this season. If we do so, we like the wise-men, may return home "another way" and allow Christ to change our hearts.