Songs Of Hope - Sing We Now Of ChristmasSample

We Three Kings of Orient Are

Memories of the Christmas season…….filling your shoes with straw and putting them on the windowsill; waiting anxiously for the kings to bring you candy and a gift; King’s Day cake and being “king” for a day. Sound familiar? If you grew up in the United States, this probably doesn’t sound like any of your Christmas memories. You likely remember cookies and milk and Santa instead. However, for many children who grow up in Latin America or Spain, hay in your shoes and the coming of the kings is more common than cookies and Santa. The holiday we know as Epiphany is Tres Reyes (Three Kings) or Día de los Reyes in Latin America. As part of the celebration, children put hay in their shoes for the camels on the night before Tres Reyes. In the morning, the hay is gone, and the Three Kings have left them candy and gifts in their shoes. The tradition reminds families of the journey of the Wise Men and the gifts they brought Jesus.

And when they (the Magi) were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense and myrrh.
- Matthew 2:11 

Matthew doesn’t tell us how many wise men there were, exactly where they came from, how they traveled, or even that they were kings. These “facts” are all part of tradition. Matthew’s telling of the Wise Men’s visit inspired Rev. John Henry Hopkins Jr. to write the popular carol We Three Kings of Orient Are as part of a Christmas Pageant in 1857. At the time, Rev. Hopkins was teaching music at General Theological Seminary in New York. It’s unique that he wrote both the music and the lyrics. This was not common at the time. It’s also a uniquely American carol – and became one of the most popular Christmas carols to be composed in the U.S.

While this carol doesn’t remind me of shoes, hay, or gifts from my childhood, it does remind me of what a precious gift Jesus is to us. Gold, frankincense, and myrrh were the Magi’s valuable and symbolic gifts to Jesus, but Jesus is God’s gift to us. May you be reminded of what a precious gift He is to you this Christmas season!

We three kings of Orient are bearing gifts we traverse afar.
Field and fountain, moor and mountain, Following yonder star.
Born a king on Bethlehem’s plain, Gold I bring to crown Him again,
King forever, ceasing never, Over us all to reign.

Dr. Michelle Reina
Associate Professor, McLane College of Business
University of Mary Hardin-Baylor