Subject: Gold, Frankinsense and Myrrh
Date: Fri, 12 Nov 1999 08:54:53 +0000
From: Harry Grove 
Newsgroups: uk.religion.christian

You may care to read the following - x-posted from 
In article <942371565.5014.0 >, Funkboy
< > writes
>As Christmas is approaching, I happened to be discussing the birth of Christ
>with a friend the other night, and it occurred to us that there seems to be
>no mention of the gold, frankincense and myrrh that was allegedly given to
>baby Jesus courtesy of the  3 wise men, following them being presented to
>Jesus after his birth.
>Surely such valuable gifts would have had a dramatic effect on the
>youngsters life, giving him a great deal of security (in addition to him
>being the alleged son of god, which in itself seems to be a pretty secure
>position to hold), and their subsequent use should have been documented
>accordingly. So, what happened to the aforementioned gifts??

Well, since you asked .........
The Gold: well that would have gone on paying for the 
stable. Once they’d got obvious ‘means of 
support’ the landlord would have demanded payment 
for the accomodation, with something more for the 
inconvenience of all the visitors and sight see-ers 
trampling through his yard and disturbing his other 
guests.

As for the cost of feeding the camels of the three 
wise men .....

The Frankinsense: well that would have been put to 
immediate use, in fumigating the stable. Can you have 
any understanding of what it must have been like ? 
Giving birth and then living with such a young child 
(nappies, milk, vomit, etc) and walking and sitting 
in hay littered with the obvious traces of the sheep, 
goats and the ox (never forget the ox)!  A bit of 
Frankinsense would have come in very handy burning 
away with the joss-sticks and making the foetid air 
a little more breathable.

The Myrrh: well Mary was trying to keep that tucked 
away, somewhere special, saving it for a rainy day 
having seen just how quickly the other gifts had 
disappeared. But it went as well. Fleeing into Egypt 
is a pricey business and palms have to be greased 
[Backsheesh, effendi] before you can have your family 
smuggled across the frontier (Arab States are no more 
keen to have refugees arrive unexpectedly, today).

So there you are: so many gifts, and all gone so 
quickly.  Lost, homeless, penniless and in a strange 
country. Still, with more than a little hard work and 
application, they ‘picked-themselves-up’ 
and developed a nice little carpentery business.

The story can be an example to us all. Just see how the 
homeless and penniless who have arrived in this country 
have thrived and prospered and stop and think for a 
while ...............

“Is there a Saviour among them ?”

-- 
Harry Grove
“Happy Christmas ... ‘Funk-Boy’ .”

And a Happy Christmas to all readers at  too.