It’s rare that you don’t see three wise men as part of a nativity play, or TV drama. However, there’s a lot that gets mistaken — they almost certainly rode horses, and not camels, they arrived up to 2 year after Jesus was born, and not the day he was, and there were significantly more than 3 of them.

The reason we have this idea of three wise men, is because there were three types of gifts given. And those gifts were significant. First, gold was offered to acknowledge Jesus as King. Second, frankincense, the spice used by priests, symbolised Jesus being our High Priest. But third, myrrh was offered, which was the spice used in burials, signifying that Jesus would die for us, to pay for our sin. And in that is an important reminder that the Christmas story is not good news because of what happened, but because of what would happen for you and I on a cross some 33 years later.