Kings Offer Their Gifts to a Child

The Adoration of The Magi, Albrecht-Durer, 1504

The three Kings have recognized that something extraordinary and significant will come into existence. This insight gives them the courage to go on a long and dangerous journey. And when they finally find what they were seeking for, in a little child it makes sense to them as well – despite their age, wisdom and regal dignity – to kneel down, to worship and to offer precious gifts.

Within us also lives a divine child, which is to come, though not yet mature will develop in the future. The worldly “King in us”, who has already in his earthly existence acquired external power, knowledge and maybe even wisdom, and on whom we rely in our everyday decisions, is probably not very much inclined to bow down before a force in our soul which has the voice of a child and has not yet come to perfection.

The image of the three Kings, who bring their gifts, inspires us to see our possibilities to nourish this potential of the divine within ourselves and all human beings.