Valuable (ADVENT-URE 23-25: Gold, Frankincense, & Myrrh)

The Bible teaches us that salvation is a free gift from God; it cannot be earned, only received.  By His grace, Jesus, through His death and resurrection, makes this wonderful gift available to us. Ephesians 2 says:
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.
10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Because Jesus has given us this wonderful gift of salvation, we respond by surrendering ourselves to Him - our desires and our ambitions.  Because we recognize that His plans and desires for us are so much greater than we can arrange in our limited human wisdom, and greater than we can comprehend.  We receive His grace by faith, and we enter into a love relationship with our Savior. We honor our King and our Lord with worship, accepting His death so that we can enter into eternal life.

+++++

Today, we come to the end of our 25 symbols in our Christmas Advent-ure, because I want to take three items, three gifts, three symbols that remind us of various aspects of the nature of Christ.

In Matthew chapter 2, we read about these Magi who came from the East.  We pick up on their
story after they had come to King Herod.  They announced that they had come to worship the "King of the Jews:"
9 When they heard the king, they departed; and behold, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came and stood over where the young Child was.
10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy.
11 And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

The Magi brought three gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh - each of these had enormous significance relative to Jesus.  The gold has generally been thought to represent royalty - the Magi brought this gift as recognition of a King.  The frankincense, well, we see throughout the Scriptures that incense is used in worship, so traditionally, that gift was meant to show honor and adoration to this King.  And, finally, there's myrrh, which was used in the preparation of a body for burial - what a powerful way to communicate that Jesus was born to die, that He would give His life so that humanity might be freed from the chains of sin and death.

Three gifts - of incredible value - presented to Jesus by the wise men who had been drawn to see the Christ Child by a star in the East.  They were on a mission, orchestrated by God, to leave a lasting testimony about the meaning of Jesus coming to earth.

*****

The gifts of the Wise Men can remind us of what is important in life.  And, we recognize that life itself, as well as eternal life in Jesus, are very valuable indeed.

Actress Nicole Scherzinger recognizes the value of life. She is a voice in the Disney film, Moana, and is slated to star as Penny in the upcoming Dirty Dancing remake on ABC. But Nicole had to struggle with the role; you see, in the original 1987 film, the character survives a dangerous illegal abortion, according to a story on the Live Action News website, which reports that in a recent interview with the Daily Mail, Scherzinger "revealed the reasoning behind her pro-life views: she could have been aborted."

She admitted, “My mum got pregnant with me when she was 17 and had me when she was 18,” adding, “She chose.” She said that her mother's parents were "never going to let her have an abortion." Nicole added, “So I came out, so I just want to you know [sic] encourage everybody to keep your babies.”

Regarding the role of Penny in Dirty Dancing, Scherzinger says: “So I got the role and I almost didn’t take it because I didn’t want to promote abortion,” she added, “because my character has an abortion.”  According to Live Action News, she took the role in order to impact others on the issue. She related, "hopefully they can learn from you know her ways and I can be a positive influence.”

Her grandfather, who is a preacher, prayed about the role and discerned it was what Nicole "was meant to do."  She said, “We decided that maybe I could be a voice,” adding, “that I could shed some light on the subject without being preachy.”

Contrast Nicole's stand on life with another actress, who has an opposite view. ChristianHeadlines.com reports that Lena Dunham, according to a People.com story, recalled on her podcast a trip she made to a Texas Planned Parenthood clinic. She was asked to share about her own abortion experience. Dunham said, "I sort of jumped. ‘I haven’t had an abortion,’ I told her. I wanted to make it really clear to her that, as much as I was going out and fighting for other women’s options, I myself had never had an abortion..." She said that "I was carrying within myself stigma around this issue,” adding, “Even I, the woman who cares as much as anybody about a woman’s right to choose, felt that it was important that people know that I was unblemished in this department.” She related that, “Now I can say that I still haven’t had an abortion, but I wish I had.”

The Christian Headlines story states that Dunham did later post on Instagram that she "didn’t mean to trivialize the 'emotional and physical challenges of terminating a pregnancy.'"

Live Action News points out:

No woman ever wishes to be in the situation where they have to decide whether or not to have an abortion. It’s never a happy scenario. These are women who are scared, and hopeless. They’re often struggling financially, or coerced into undergoing the abortion. Some of them suffer for years after the procedure. No matter why a woman undergoes an abortion, what her reasoning is or how sure she is of her decision, it’s never a positive experience that she hopes for.

Together, I want to think about two valuable gifts.  One is the gift of life, the other is the gift of eternal life.  I think about that Focus on the Family vignette that we've been airing on Faith Radio, calling attention to a young woman over 2000 years ago, scared - and pregnant.   Mary was chosen to give life, to give life to the greatest gift of all.  She gave herself to God, and she was rewarded for her obedience. Regarding the gift of life, no one knows, other than God Himself, the potential of each child in the womb.  God has a purpose for every child conceived - He had a purpose for you; He had a purpose for Nicole Scherzinger, and He even has a purpose for Lena Dunham.  He has ordained all our our lives, and He desires for us to live for His glory.  Who are we, in our limited, fallible, human wisdom, to try to circumvent the plan of God for a human life.

We also reflect on another valuable gift - the gift of eternal life.  Our King, the one true King, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, symbolized by the gold of the wise men, came to earth.  As the frankincense reminds us, He was a man to be worshipped and adored, because He was the Son of God, the Son of Man the perfect substitute and sacrifice for our sins.  In order to be that substitute, He had to give His life, represented by the myrrh, the embalming oil, that the wise men brought.  We can think of valuable gifts offered by our Savior, and in response, we give ourselves to Him and bring Him honor, glory, and thanksgiving - He is the King who left His throne to die in our place!