Bringing our Gifts of Worship

I love that my children, Staci and Larry, named their 60+ acres ranch, Epiphany Ranch. Epiphany was the name of my husband’s missions and message ministry for many years. They are carrying on the family legacy in action and my son, Ryan, carries on as President of the ministry corporation. It does this wife and mama’s heart good to know that “Epiphany” (the manifestation of God in His Son as human in Jesus Christ) is alive and well.

Today, I celebrate with others, Epiphany Sunday (Epiphany is actually the 12th day after Christmas, hence the song, the 12 Days of Christmas, on January 6th) — commemorating the day when the Three Kings aka Wise Men aka Magi showed up to worship the newborn King.

Yesterday, in an analogy of Elvis Presley’s birthday (the king of rock n’ roll) paling in comparison to our King, today I’m thinking about those three kings of Epiphany and the gifts they brought to the Holy Family (not at the manger, but about two or more years later at their home in Egypt). Those gifts were God’s way of providing for them in real, practical ways. We know that gold is always able to be used in financial transactions. And frankincense and myrrh were very valuable and could be sold for cash.

I read about the symbolism of the gifts. My eyes were opened even more to the aspects of Jesus’ identity and mission. The gold was fit for a king and symbolic of Jesus’ royalty: Prince of Peace and King of kings. The frankincense symbolized that Jesus is a priest, an intermediary between God and people. With Jesus, we have communion with the Father. Myrrh was used to embalm bodies for burial. Myrrh is a reminder that Jesus was born to die so that we may live.

God showed us in His gift of Jesus – that love gives. “For God so LOVED the world that He GAVE His only Son….” John 3:16. God gives. When we love, we give. We can’t help ourselves. He demonstrated His love. We demonstrate our love. I loved giving to my family this Christmas. Watching their faces light up with anticipation of what was inside that wrapping, was my delight. That joyful nature of giving and receiving is straight from God’s heart. The Three Kings brought gifts to Jesus in honor of their worship of Him, but Jesus gave them, and us, back so much more. He came to this earth on purpose. He became one of us so that He could give us the gift of a “PAID IN FULL” bill. He gave us the gift of forgiveness and a pardon from ever having to pay for the mistakes we make. He gave us His ALL! Isn’t that reason for honoring Him in our worship of Him?

We only need to take and receive the gift. Once we do, we will want to give back to Him in worship with everything we are and everything we have. We honor and worship Him. When we experience His love, like the Three Kings, we must give and we must worship Him, not because we’re required to, but because we want to honor, adore and worship our KING of all kings!

Now that we know Him, too, we are compelled to offer Him our most valuable gift…..ourselves in worship of Him! The Wise Men said: “We have come to worship Him.” (Matthew 2:2) May we also come to offer Him our worship, praise and adoration, too!