I'VE always been fascinated by the mighty Bethlehem story, and especially by those elements of it which are not dealt with either in the Testament or the learned literature surrounding the event. It is a story that has everything.

A great king is born in a stable, stars flash in the skies, angels sing, three kings arrive from the desert bearing gifts, the ancient world changes forever. The child lies in a crib beside an ox and an ass.

But do you know the element that has always fascinated me most about the story? Please do not accuse me of blasphemy when I confess that I've always wondered about the impact upon the lives of a poor carpenter's family of the gifts which the kings brought with them across the desert sands to Bethlehem.

They were the gifts of gold frankincense and myrhh. We all know that. They were gifts that back in that ancient world were only exchanged between royalty.

And they were worth a fortune, any one of them, and all three together, according to the bit of research I've done on the matter, were so valuable that they would certainly have enabled a carpenter's family to live in great comfort for a long, long time.

Even one gold coin (and I'm sure the kings were much more generous than that) would have been the equivalent of a good year's pay for a carpenter like Joseph.

Gold was then at least as valuable as it is today. It was the standard of value. Can ye see why this area fascinates me so much?

And if gold was more valuable then frankincense and myrhh, rare resins from Arabia and Ethiopia, they were worth more than their weight in it, especially the myrhh.

Your average carpenter and his family would go through their lives and never be able to afford even a smell of either. The spices were affordable only for royalty or the very wealthy indeed. They were the gilt-edged currency of the old cultures of the east.

Imagine the purchasing power of $10,000 back when AD was just a day old, and you could live for a week on two cents of your money?

Well, by my reckoning on the available data, that is what a pound of myrhh was worth away back then. (If you could get it.)

Touchingly, for the child at least, it was the most practical by far of the gifts. This because it was used by the Chinese to cure diaper rash!

But that was only one of its uses. Arab kings and princes mixed it with various potions in an effort to halt baldness. And Indian royalty used it as an antidote against obesity and gout, as well as for other medicinal purposes.

I'm not fabricating this. It is a fact.

Frankincense was not quite so costly as myrhh, but we are still talking big money. It would have cost at least $5,000 a pound!

Getting a pound of it would have been equivalent to winning the Irish Sweepstakes 30 years ago. You were made for life, a millionaire.

Again I'm not being blasphemous, simply fascinated by the economic consequences for the Holy Family of such gifts.

Frankincense, like myrhh, was used in many of the Eastern cultures, frequently being associated with the funerals of the mighty. When they opened King Tut's tomb, for example, the scent of it was still heavy in the air all those tens of centuries later!

In the scalding desert climate it was mixed with oils and herbs to act as a skin moisturizer. The ancient Chinese used frankincense compounds to cure respiratory ailments.

When common soldiers of the Roman Empire (which would later crucify this child) received battle wounds they were smeared with fowl and animal fats.

But the wounds and bruises of their emperors and generals were smeared with a frankincense paste. Battlefields are not a level playing field, are they?

So there we have it. By my reckoning (and no blasphemy intended at all) Joseph the Carpenter left the fabled stable of Bethlehem, not just with the child and Mary, but with a considerable fortune.

A very considerable fortune indeed. I bet you never thought about that side of it!

And it has always frustrated me that what the scholars call the Hidden Years in the life of the Child, of which we know nothing except that He was obedient to the parents, come after the Bethlehem beginning.

Wouldn't it be heartwarming to assume that those Hidden Years before the horrific ending 30 years later were years of full and plenty at every human level. Days of wine and roses.

In this season of peace and goodwill it is an assumption that I always make anyway and always will make. You too, if you are of the Christian persuasion, can add to the humanity of Christmas by making the same assumption.

And I wish all of you all that you wish yourselves.

And especially peace.