We have always been led to believe that the Magi were made up of three kings. The truth is scripture never defines it as such. The magi could have been one person, even three women for all we know.

This leads me to a famous Epiphany joke. If the Magi were three women, they would not have gotten lost, they would have asked for directions, they would have brought food instead of gold, and they would have cleaned the stable.

There may be something here for us to consider. Since most of us do not have three gifts available to bring to Jesus, we need to be more practical in what we bring to Him on this feast day. We cannot hide the fact that there are many Herods looking to remove Him from the world, so it is up to us to reverse this trend.

The first gift is gold. As I stated, we may not have gold but if we listen to Isaiah, the shine or radiance is most important and we can bring that. I am reminded of the movie, ‘Forrest Gump.” Forrest becomes very successful in life by doing exactly what he is told to do. One example from the movie is when he is taught how to play ping pong. The person tells him that all he needs to do is never take his eye off the ball. He becomes a world champion. Can we say that we do this in what Jesus asks us to do? I can say probably not. What if we were to take literally, with exact 100% conviction, one of the virtues of Christ? No matter what happens we are to offer forgiveness. If we do this we will bring a special gift to Jesus and shine brightly in the world.

The next gift is Frankincense. I am not sure about you, but I do not have a personal supply in my house. What we can offer to Jesus is to rise up a little higher for Him. I was praying for my cousin Debbie recently and realized that it is almost a year since she died. She was really an interesting person. When we were younger she would have guys turning their heads so much that many probably had to see doctors for whiplash. She then went on to a successful sports career with not much fanfare. In the last year of her life she was very open to me about the mistakes she had made and how she sought God’s love.

Her life turned out to be the ultimate “open book”. We can all learn from her. God wants to see the best side of us and He wants to see that we are open about our weaknesses as well. If we can do this we will rise up higher in our relationship with God and each other.

The last gift is myrrh, the embalming spice. Certainly not something we have in our desk drawer either. There is a great story about Alvin the dog. Alvin was homeless and had a good friend that he stayed with. One day animal rescue was called to a roadside to help a brown dog lying on the side of the road. The dog turned out to be Alvin , but he was not alone. Just off the roadside Alvin was lying on top of his good friend who had been hit by a car. Alvin was willing to sacrifice his life to protect his critically injured friend. Our church does a credible job preaching life from conception to natural death. Maybe we need to look closer at all of God’s creation to gain a deeper respect for those years we spend living together.

The reality of Christmas is that some of the gifts we receive will be used and some may not. This is not the case for Jesus. If we can find it in our hearts to bring these practical gifts to His feet every day they will be used for building the Kingdom here on earth.

Never discount what we are all called to do. The great discovery of Christ is in our midst. Our actions are a great factor in how much His loving face will be seen in 2009 and beyond.