Jimbo's Jots

Here’s a little secret . . . I love Christmas! Everything about it! I remember as a kid driving in the car counting the houses that had Christmas decorations up. The town of East Peoria, Illinois, where I grew up has its Festival of Lights parade. The floats were all adorned with Christmas lights and then after the parade, staged in the city park right down from our house.

So, this time of year, to me, is a magical time. It’s a time to be with family and friends to celebrate the gift of Jesus given to us by God Himself for the purpose of our salvation and to live with Him eternally.

So, it’s no surprise that at the Christmas story, there are gifts brought to Jesus. Over the next few weeks, we’ll look at the gifts given to the baby child Jesus and some potential meaning behind the gifts.

First, we need to talk about the gift bearers. These are the travelers who followed a star. Over the years, there has been many and varying interpretations of who they were, were they kings or something else, where did they actually come from.

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” . . . After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route. (Matthew 2:1-2,9-11)

And really that is all we know about them. Matthew doesn’t really get into much detail. Magi is interpreted to mean “wise men”, but it is believed their “wisdom” was in the area of astrology. However, they knew enough about this star to follow it. 

Down through history, the “story” of the Magi has changed, but for many years, there have been three named: Melchior, Balthasar, and Caspar. Follow up next week to read more . . . until then . . .

Be blessed and be a blessing!