Merry Christmas from the Fatman

Here is a brief thought that I gave to my family to keep Christ in the Christmas.

“they worshiped Him. Then they opened their treasures and presented Him with gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.” 

Resin from tree for myrrh

Many of us are familiar with Christmas story found them in the Bible. In Matthew 2 we find part where the Magi gave gifts to Jesus and his family. There are three gifts mentioned so the tradition of the three wise men follow; but the Bible does not tell us how many wisemen there were. I believe that there was a larger group then three. Another interesting tidbit is that this event is probably almost 2 years after the birth of Jesus. I will give you two reasons why think the Bible supports sometime is past from when Jesus born. (1) Joseph and Mary have taken up residence not in a manger but in a house, verse 11. (2) Note that Herod was able to calculate from the information given by the Magi that Jesus must be near the age of two vs. 16) Most scholars think that there were about 20 children killed by Herod.

An angel of the Lord was sent to Joseph via a dream to warn him of Herod's plan and to tell him that they needed to flee to Egypt which the boundary was about 50 miles away from Bethlehem. There they would stay for about two years until after the death of Herod. The money that they would need to

Frankincense Tree

live in Egypt and pay for their journey was given to them by the Magi’s gold, frankincense and myrrh.

Through time we have learn to give gifts at Christmas time. Jesus himself was our gift as he died for our sins that we may be forgiven and given the gift of eternal life. At Christmas we celebrate the baby born to die to be our Savior.

As my family gathered around the tree we shared gifts that would bless us throughout year. Every year I read part of the Christmas story and keep my homily short into the point. I followed the KISS method, Keep It Short Stupid! When you have kids looking at the presents it is no time for long sermon. 

Merry Christmas from the fat man. Keep walking