I was born and raised following the Catholic faith and every year at Christmas we would remember the story about the three wise men who followed the star in the east to find Mary and Joseph and their baby Jesus lying in a manger.
As the story goes, they came bearing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to show their love for the new baby and to celebrate His birth.
As a younger person, I often wondered “why?” .
Why would they bring gold to a baby?
Why would they bring Frankincense and Myrhh?
What strange gifts, I thought.
As the years have passed and my religious affiliations have changed a few times, I found myself once again pondering the meaning of the gifts brought to the baby Jesus.
I now have a slightly different perspective than when I was a child, as I have been using essential oils for my own personal health and well being for the past few years.
I started off simple with lavender and peppermint. Lavender for its calming essence, and peppermint for its ability to ease my occasional tummy trouble. Over time, my oil apothecary has grown to now include more than 30 different oils and oil blends.
I don’t make them myself. I leave that to those who have more expertise in the fine process of extracting and distilling the powerful essences of herbs and flowers.
But I do love breathing them in and filling my aura with their energy.
The past few months, I have begun using the essential oils of both frankincense and myrrh and now better understand what fantastic healing oils they actually are!
My day job involves working near hot french fry oil, and a few weeks ago, in the busy-ness of emptying the cooked french fries from their cooking basket to the hopper they are served from, my right forearm got “kissed” by the the french fry basket coming out of the extremely hot oil.
The french fry baskets are made of a stainless steel criss cross metal grid, so needless to say, I ended up with a burn consisting of 10 equidistant lines on my skin. A cool looking, albeit very sore burn. (I don’t have tattoos, so this is the closest I will get to having a unique design on my skin!)
After I washed off the french fry oil, I applied some frankincense which instantly soothed the burn and began helping my skin to heal. ( Yes, I just happened to have some in my lunch bag!) I continued to re-apply it and within a few days the redness faded and my skin has healed without scarring. How wonderful!
Myrhh has now become a new great part of my daily dental hygiene.
About a month ago, I was starting to get a small toothache by one of my molars. A trip to the dentist was not on my immediate schedule, so I began putting a small drop of myrrh oil on my gums with a q-tip swab every morning and it instantly stopped the ache. I’ve continued to use it every morning, and the ache has not returned. I do plan to see my dentist in the new year, but until such time, myrrh has done a wonderful job.
So the mystery of these two gifts to the baby Jesus has been lifted a bit in my mind as I now ponder that perhaps they were given for their powerful healing abilities.
I did a quick Google search, and found some fabulous websites confirming my discovery of the healing benefits of these two oils.
Wonders of wonders – those wise men were truly wise! Now, if I could just find some gold!
Merry Christmas!
Liana Joi Jennings 