The Gift of Frankincense

And Aaron shall burn thereon sweet incense every morning: when he dresseth the lamps, he shall burn incense upon it. And when Aaron lighteth the lamps at even, he shall burn incense upon it, a perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your generations.” (Exodus 30:7-8). Frankincense was an essential part of the incense offering in the Tabernacle and later the temple in Jewish tradition and is still used in the religious rites of many religions today. The burning of incense symbolizes our prayers ascending to Heaven. Just as Aaron and his descendents were to have a perpetual incense before the Lord, because of Jesus Christ's great and last offering, we can rely on Him as our Mediator and Intercessor to offer up a perpetual prayer unto our Heavenly Father. Being able to communicate constantly with God despite the fact that we often sin and fall short of full faithfulness in our Covenants is truly a gift. Because God so loved us that He offered up His only begotten Son, and because Jesus so loved us that He laid down His own life, we are not cut off forever because of our bad decisions. Every time that we pray we can think about the gift of Frankincense, the gift that we can not only offer up a perpetual prayer but actually have a hope that someone up there is both listening and eager to respond to our prayers with the exact right response that we need.