A man named O. Henry wrote a short in 1905 that’s used a lot at Christmas time because of its moral lesson about gift-giving. And no, it’s not whom the delicious candy bar is named after—that’s \”Oh Henry!\” as an exclamation—apparently because of how delicious it is. This is \”O\” like the letter \”O\” as in the first initial of his first name, then last name, \”Henry.” Apparently, a lot of writers back in the day abbreviated their first/middle names as initials—probably because it makes them sound even more prestigious, right: J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, A.W. Tozer, and A.W. Pink, and more.

Back to the point, Henry wrote this short story called The Gift of the Magi—Magi—as in the wise men in Matthew’s account of the Christmas story. The story is about a young husband and wife and how they deal with the struggle of buying secret Christmas gifts for each other with the very little money they have, in near poverty, to show one another how much they adore and love each other. Della, the wife, had a habit of saying little prayers about the simplest things every day, \”Please God, make him think I’m still pretty.\” And it was her long, cascading, brown, hair that flowed down her back past her waist that made her so beautiful in her husband, Jim’s, eyes. It was her prized possession. But it’s Christmas Eve, and she only has $1.87 to buy a present for her husband. So she visits the nearby shop of a hairdresser, Madame Sofronie, where she agrees to cut off her hair and sell it to her as a wig for $20, so she can afford to buy Jim a platinum watch chain for Jim’s favorite and only watch.

Jim comes home from work that evening, shocked to find his wife’s head shorn, her beautiful hair gone. She tells him she sold her hair so she could afford to buy him the gold chain for his watch. And then to her surprise, Jim presents his gift to her, a set of ornamental tortoise shell combs, with jeweled rims, which she was yearning for, for some time, which he bought for her to comb her long, beautiful hair with and which she will now be unable to use until her hair grows back out. And then even more shocking, Jim confesses that he sold his beloved pocket watch so that he could afford to buy her these fancy ornamental combs.

Both Della and Jim now have gifts that neither can make use of. Della now has cropped hair, but with the finest gift her young husband could sacrifice to buy. And Jim, now has no watch, but with the most precious gift his young bride could sacrifice to bring to him for Christmas. Yet they both now know just how great and how deep their love for one another is, because of how far they were willing to go to show it.

And then Henry ends the short story with this, “Here I have lamely 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 are the wisest. Of all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi.”

Henry is right. He understands that the greatest expression of love is in giving, and though we don’t have access into the hearts/minds of the Magi to know precisely what compelled them to give their gifts as an expression of worship of the born King, Jesus, we can safely say at the very least they gave their gifts in adoration of him. They adorned the born King with their gifts as an act of worship and they bowed down before the born King in a humble show of worship and reverence, recognizing his sovereignty and kingship over their lives, even at birth. The question for you is how are you responding to the news of the born King, Jesus, who is Savior, King, Lord, and God of the universe? Because the right response is faith in and worship of the King, most poignantly demonstrated through our love for Him by adorning Him with our gifts—

Not just with material gifts but our spiritual gifts—our lives—our abilities—our talents—our time—in sacrificial service to Him—out of love—deep-seated love and affection, for Him. And we learn this lesson on the pages of Matthew from the most unlikely of people…obscure pagan, Gentile, unbelieving and seemingly un-elect wise men…who humbly, reverentially, and sacrificially, give to and worship the born King, Jesus.