The Wise Men and Their Four Gifts

We’ve all heard the story of the Wise Men who see a bright star in the east and follow it to find baby Jesus newly born in a stable in Bethlehem.They come to Him and present Him with three gifts; gold, frankincense and myrrh.However, upon closer reading and studying of the Scripture, we discover that it didn’t exactly happen like that.And they leave out a very important gift. In the retelling of the story, three gifts are always mentioned. But as I’ve been reflecting on the mystery of it all, I’ve come to discover a fourth gift, equally, if not in a sense greater, than the ones normally mentioned.And that is the gift of The Journey.In Matthew 2, we see that the wise men or magi, originally see the star at the time of Jesus’ birth. They begin their journey from the eastern lands to Jerusalem and there theyinquire as to where the King of the Jews has been born, for they would like to worship Him.Following the story, we see that they travelled approximately 2 years before eventually being led to the home of Jesus and His family. (Which leaves me asking the question, How far am I willing to go to seek the Messiah?? And what am I willing to leave behind?) Verse 9 tells us that the star appeared again as they left Jerusalem,  that it went before them and stopped over the house where the child was.“And they were overjoyed and went in and fell at His feet and worshiped Him. And presented their costly gifts to Him.” (Matthew 2.11)Imagine with me traveling for 2 years. Leaving your family, your job, and the comforts of home, walking, riding camels and sleeping and eating in strange places each night.  While scripture is unclear as to exactly who these men were, and how many there were, we do believe they were from various countries and cultures. Which adds an even greater challenge in their traveling together.The journey was a costly one that included great sacrifice. And I’d like to believe that, along with the other expensive gifts they presented to Him, the fourth gift was that of The Journey.One of my favorite gifts I’ve received at Christmas was from my husband many years ago. We had been at a shopping mall. A huge mall. We walked from one end to the other and as we were walking through one store, I saw a jacket I fell in love with. I took it off the hanger and tried it on and admired it. I hung it back on the rack and we moseyed on.I was very surprised Christmas morning when I unwrapped one of my gifts and found that jacket in the box.After I unwrapped it and put it on and zipped it up, he began to tell us the story of how he went back to the mall and couldn’t remember what store we had seen it in, and he literally searched for hours up and down the seemingly endless rows of stores, and in and out of the larger department stores, until he finally found the jacket.And that’s when I realized that the jacket was nice, but the real gift was in The Journey.