The Parish Church of St. Matthew, Highfield, Wigan

‘What can I give Him, poor as I am?’

As I write it is just a couple of weeks until Christmas and the difficult task of choosing suitable gifts for friends and family is in full swing. My choices tend to be a little conservative - not quite socks and handkerchiefs, but not exactly adventurous and imaginative things either. To be honest my wife Alison is the one who comes up with the ideas for most of the things we give.

On the sixth of this month we celebrate the Epiphany which traditionally is the day we remember the visit of the Wise Men/Magi bearing gifts for Jesus. If you thought choosing gifts for your family and friends was difficult imagine having to choose what you would bring as a gift for the Saviour of the World!

The Wise Men, as any child can tell you, brought gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Perhaps not the first things you would think of as gifts for a child!

Theologians have puzzled for centuries why they chose these particular things. The consensus seems to be that they chose the gifts as befitting a King, Priest and Sacrificial Lamb. Gold was the usual offering given by subjects to their king; frankincense (a kind of aromatic incense derived from tree sap) was used by a priest in the Temple; and myrrh (a bitter-tasting aromatic gum extracted from a thorny bush called “balsamodendron myrrha” used for embalming the dead) for one who would be given up to die. All three were among the most costly items available at the time.

Our gifts to Jesus do not need to be so extravagant but they do require just as much thought, and ultimately are even more costly. Obviously we cannot give Jesus the usual wrapped-up present so what might he want from us?

Well, I’m NOT going to tell you! Actually, more accurately, I can’t tell you because I don’t know! We each have to work the answer out for ourselves. We are all unique, our circumstances are different and our talents and abilities are all different. So, therefore, our gifts to Jesus will be different too. They may be a mixture of gifts arising from our money, time and talents.

What I can tell you is that God will honour your gift if it is given from a thankful heart after prayerful consideration. I hope that as this New Year begins we can all take the time to consider for ourselves what Jesus might want from us in 2004.

May God bless us and the work we do in his name this year,

Bob

Page last modified: 29 December 2003