December24

Gifts from the Heart

...and opening their treasures, they offered to Him gifts: gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. (Matthew 2:11)

It was a custom in ancient times to give gifts to ... the king, when they were approached ...because external gifts signified internal or spiritual gifts, namely, such as go forth from the heart, and thence are of the affection and faith; and as by these conjunction is effected, in the spiritual sense “gifts” in reference to God signify conjunction. (Apocalypse Explained 661.1,2)

Gifts offered to the Lord were testifications of such things as are offered by the heart, which are those of faith and of charity...the gifts that were offered to Jehovah signified such things as are offered by man from the heart unto the Lord, and are accepted by the Lord. (Arcana Coelestia 9293.1,2)

And as this was a holy ritual, signifying initiation, the wise men from the east also, who came to Jesus just after His birth, brought presents—gold, frankincense, and myrrh; “gold” signified celestial love; “frankincense,” spiritual love; and “myrrh,” these loves in the natural. (Arcana Coelestia 4262.3)

In the heavens there is a sharing of all with each and of each with all. Such sharing goes forth from the two loves of heaven, which are, as has been said, love to the Lord and love towards the neighbor; and to share their delights is the very nature of these loves. Love to the Lord is such because the Lord’s love is a love of sharing everything it has with all, since it wills the happiness of all. There is a like love in everyone of those who love the Lord, because the Lord is in them; and from this comes the mutual sharing of the delights of angels with one another. (Heaven and Hell 399)

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