’Tis the season for reminiscing the original Home Alone, drinking hot chocolate and putting A Charlie Brown Christmas on your proverbial record player. But we’re going to mix things up, this weeks post talks about kings and gifts.

Nations shall come to your light, and kings shall bring gold and frankincense. —Isaiah 60:2–6

A cursory search of the inter-webs for ‘African Kings’ (this is Pray North Africa afterall) leads to Mansa Musa the first, a Malian king from the 14th century who prospered so enormously from salt and gold that history now records him as the richest man to ever live. He commandeered a total worth more than six times that of Warren Buffets. Have you ever heard someone speak of another as being ‘worth his salt’? There were fortunes to be had in salt in the old world.

Appending ‘North’ to the search query reveals the very North Africa related story of Septimius Severus, the African emperor of Rome. A well traveled man being born in Mauritainia, grew up in Libya and died on the battlefield in Scotland. He did much to expand the roman empire.

In the annals of Kings it’s typical to find men of noble birth, who as children probably thoroughly enjoyed the respect they received at citing their family name. It’s typical to find men of great means, who could be known like Severus as an imperial builder with buildings still standing now, thousands of years later, bearing his inscription. Our king is different.

I won’t bore you with the details you likely already know, but compared to Septimius Severus and Mansa Musa, our Lord and savour arrived into the meekest imaginable, was killed for invoking his fathers name, had not pillow where to place his head and left not one physical artefact during his time here, yet he is easily the greatest king to walk this earth. Our king is like no other, the gift he brings us is absolute certainty in the face of the unknown.

See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone
a precious stone for a sure foundation;
the one who trusts in it will never be dismayed.
—Isaiah 28:16