Friday, December 07, 2012

Gold

Day 7 - Gold
Melchior brought the gift of gold.  

Were the three gifts brought by the Magi symbolic of the future roles of Jesus?  The gift Melchior offered was Gold,  which might have symbolized the acceptance that this baby was truly a King of Kings.  What form of gold was it?  Coins?  pieces of gold?  jewelry adornments?  For the sake of my scene, I'll go with the gold coins.

Through recorded history, gold maintains its genuine tangible wealth.  When we hear that a sunken ship has been discovered on the salty sea floor, the first thing we hear about is the gold.  It remains beautiful, brilliant, and desirable.  

I try to imagine what it was like for Joseph and Mary, who were poor and humble of heart.  What was it like for them to be given gold?  Did it put the Holy Family in danger of being robbed? Where would they have hidden a chest of gold coins?  Did they use it to escape Bethlehem?  Or, did they save it for Jesus?  There weren't safety deposit boxes like there are today, so where did they keep it safe?  Where are these gold coins today?  In my imagination, they are the most precious things on earth.

Gold, the noble metal, is part of my Nativity.