Sunday, 7 January 2007

Epiphany

Matthew 2: 1-12

Today, as we celebrate the coming of the Magi to adore the infant Jesus, I have chosen to share with you a beautiful story. This is the story of a poor, young couple, in a humble apartment, on the day before Christmas. Della is sobbing on the couch, distraught that she only has one dollar and eighty-seven cents to buy her beloved husband Jim a Christmas present. After a while, she bundles up in her old coat and hat, and rushes down the street to a local hair goods shop, where she sells her greatest treasure, her beautiful hair, for twenty dollars. Searching for hours, she finally finds a gift worthy of her Jim: a platinum fob chain for the watch that belonged to Jim’s father and grandfather, his prized possession.
Returning home, she quickly fixed her remaining hair into curls, afraid that Jim would no longer find her pretty without her hair. When he came home, he was stunned as he looked at her, and listened to her explain how she had sold her hair to buy his present. Jim embraced her and allayed her fears, saying that neither short hair nor anything else could make him love her any less.
Then he tossed a package on the table: his Christmas gift for Della. She screamed, for the package contained the jeweled tortoise shell combs that she had so desired every time she had passed the store window. The combs would have looked so lovely in her hair. She reassured Jim: “My hair grows so fast!”
She now turned to give Jim his present, the watch chain. As he unwrapped it, he sank to the couch with his head in his hands. He said to her with sadness: “I sold the watch to get the money to buy your combs.”
This is the famous story by O. Henry titled “The Gift of the Magi.” He ends with these few lines of commentary. “The magi, as you know, were wise men…who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones… And here I have…related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of these days, let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi.”
This Epiphany let us give the greatest treasures of our homes and hearts, for one another, and for the Lord Jesus.