From the Rector…
Wise Men bearing gifts
During Epiphany, we reflect on the Wise Men who came bearing gifts for the infant Christ, of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh. How the Holy Family used those gifts we may never know, but the giving and receiving of gifts is something that has always intrigued me.
I remember once speaking to a child about what he had received for Christmas that year. He immediately launched into a long-winded speech about how disappointed he had been, and that next year he would make sure to put on the list very clearly the things he wanted. As it turned out, the child had not received a particular Xbox game that he had wanted. He felt very upset and that people should have listened more clearly to what he had asked for. I then asked him what else he had been given that Christmas, and he told me in some detail how he had also received a new bike, a new Xbox console, five new Xbox games, and a laptop. The word “ungrateful” did spring to mind when I heard this. Despite having received a wide range of gifts worth several hundred pounds, his Christmas was not complete because he had not got everything he wanted.
The child I spoke to had missed the point about why gifts are given at Christmas. Having said that, children can at times give the most insightful answers about things, and Jesus himself said “Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise” (Matthew 21.16). In this case, that perfected praise also came from a young child. While taking a Christmas School assembly one year, I asked the children what gift they thought Mary and Joseph would have liked on that first Christmas. Some of their answers are as follows:
“Mary and Joseph would have liked lots of clean diapers”
“Mary would have liked a comfortable bed, and a proper cot for Jesus”
“Mary would have liked new baby clothes for Jesus as she only had swaddling cloths”.
The answer to what gift Mary would have liked most, that still to this day amazes me, was this:
“Mary already had her gift. She had been given Jesus”
I think for me that simple answer given by a child does really sum up for me what the greatest gift of Christmas is. For many in today’s society, Christmas has been reduced to a time of extravagance and anticipation of receiving gifts. The pressure on parents especially to provide expensive gifts has in many cases blotted out the reason why we give gifts at Christmas in the first place, to remember and celebrate God’s gift to the world. No amount of material possessions or presents will ever compare with the gift God has given everyone of us. And what is that gift? It is the gift that the wise men recognized so long, and the reason they bought gifts themselves to honour God’s gift. It was, that in the child they came and saw they saw God himself reaching out not just to a select group of people, but to all humanity. They witnessed God engaging with humanity in a way never seen before, and they recognized the importance of that gift.
The wise men didn’t know what they would find when they followed that star, but they came prepared to offer a gift of praise to God. Let us hope as we follow God in our lives, that we, like them, will always be prepared to do the same, and offer our own gift to God, whatever that may be.
Fr Kevin