"For all their great wisdom, they overlooked the one gift that the child would have been genuinely pleased to have someday, and that was the gift of themselves and their love."(F. Buechner "Listening to Your Life" pp.5-6)
Today is of course the Feast of the Epiphany. The day when the church remembers the visit of the 3 wise men, kings or whatever they were. Bringing the gifts gold, frankincense and myrrh, each with their deep symbolic meaning of what the church believes about Jesus, and also conveniently fulfilling the prophecy in Isaiah.
They aren't named in the Bible, but tradition would later add names, and probably created some sort of discipleship out of them later. The author Christopher Moore in his book, The Gospel According to Biff, has Jesus and his pal Biff go and find the wise men to figure out who Jesus is.
Certainly all of us like gifts. And the Feast of the Epiphany is a reminder of that fact. Buechner's point though is one worth considering. How often do we actually replace ourselves our time, our presence with a gift. We feel so busy that instead of spending quality time with our kids we try to compensate with some material object.
I'm not able to give my sons very much in the way of the latest and greatest stuff. I've tried to give them as much of my time and affection as possible. I don't regret those decisions. Hopefully the gift of my presence in their lives will be something they will come to appreciate. It doesn't feel like much sometimes, but I do have it to freely give.
Blessings,
Ed
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