In the Christmas story, the wise men bring gifts to the Lord: gold, frankincense and myrrh.

The gold is listed first, because it is the inmost - signifying good, e.g. the good that we do when we love the Lord and the neighbor.

The frankincense is next. It signifies rational truth, which is the set of true ideas that we know, not about external things like cars or cooking, but about what is really good, and what is really true.

These rational truths are built on earlier knowledges that we learn, before we have really made them our own. Those early knowledges about spiritual things - often learned in childhood - are represented by the myrrh.

In a way, these gifts are really a reciprocation. We can't actually give them to the Lord until the Lord has given them to us. We necessarily start out by learning and doing the Lord's law (myrrh). The Lord can then call up those memories to become rational truths (frankincense). Then, over time, and with effort, those truths can be transformed into good (gold). The wise men from the East had gone through this process of learning and becoming vessels that could receive truths and goods. They were able to perceive the Lord's birth, and find him, and bring gifts to him.

1769. A certain spirit came to me not long after he had departed this life. This I was able to deduce from the fact that he still did not know that he had entered the next life but supposed that he was living in the world. I perceived that he had been a person dedicated to scholarly pursuits, about which I spoke to him. But at that moment he was suddenly carried up on high, which amazed me. I presumed that he was one of those people who had aspired to high things, since such people are usually taken up on high; or else that he was one of those who imagined heaven to be far away up on high and who likewise are usually taken away up on high, so that from up there they may know that heaven does not exist up on high but in what is internal.

[2] But shortly after that I noticed that he was carried up to the angelic spirits who were in a forward position and slightly to the right, on the very threshold of heaven. From there he then spoke to me, saying that he saw things more exalted than human minds could ever take in. While all this was happening I was reading Deuteronomy 1, about the Jewish people - how the men were sent to explore the land of Canaan and what was in it. As I read it he said that he discerned nothing of that which occurs in the sense of the letter, only the things in the spiritual sense, and that these were marvels beyond his powers of description. This was merely at the threshold of the heaven of angelic spirits, so what must the marvels be within that heaven itself, and what must they be within the angelic heaven!

[3] Certain spirits who were with me at the time, and who had not previously believed that the Word of the Lord was of such a nature, began to repent of their unbelief. They said that in their present state they now believed because they had heard that spirit say he had heard, seen, and perceived that it was so.

[4] But other spirits continued in their unbelief, saying that it was not so but all a delusion. They also were therefore suddenly carried up, and spoke to me from where they were. They now confessed that it was anything but a delusion, for now they perceived from amid spiritual realities that it was so, their perception indeed being far keener than can possibly be imparted to any of the senses during the life of the body.

[5] Shortly afterwards others also were carried up into the same heaven. I had known one of them during his lifetime, and he bore similar witness. Among other things he also said that he was so dazed by the glory of the Word in its internal sense that he was unable to describe it. Speaking at this time with some kind of compassion he said it was remarkable that people on earth know nothing at all of such matters. He said in addition that from where he was he was able to see deeply into my thoughts and my affections, perceiving in them more things than he could mention, such as causes; such as influxes - where these come from, and from whom; such as my ideas, how they were mingled with earthly things, and that these were to be completely separated; besides many other things.