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.

10270. 'And the table and all its vessels' means within spiritual good springing from celestial, which belongs to the second heaven, and within the forms of good and the truths which are of service to that spiritual good. This is clear from the meaning of the tent of meeting outside the veil, where that table stood, as the second heaven, dealt with in 9457, 9481, 9485; from the meaning of 'the table', on which the loaves of the Presence were laid, as spiritual good springing from celestial, for celestial good is meant by 'the loaves', 9545, and spiritual good by 'the table' on which they were laid, 9684, 9685; and from the meaning of 'its vessels' as cognitions or knowledge of celestial good and truth, dealt with in 9544, and so the forms of good and the truths of service to that spiritual good since cognitions act as servants. The reason why spiritual good springing from celestial is what 'the table', on which the loaves of the Presence were laid, means is that the tent of meeting outside the veil represented the second heaven, in which the good of charity towards the neighbour reigns. This good is called spiritual good, and is good in the measure that it has celestial good, which is the good of love to the Lord, within it. For there are three kinds of good that compose the three heavens. There is the good of love to the Lord, called celestial good, composing the inmost heaven; there is the good of charity towards the neighbour, called spiritual good, composing the second heaven; and there is the good of faith, called spiritual-natural good, composing the lowest heaven. Into the celestial good belonging to the inmost heaven the Lord flows from His Divine Human directly; into the spiritual good belonging to the second heaven the Lord flows from His Divine Human, and indirectly as well through the celestial good; and into the spiritual-natural good belonging to the lowest heaven the Lord flows from His Divine Human, and again indirectly as well. The expression indirectly as well is used because the Lord flows not only indirectly but also directly into these heavens' kinds of good, as may be recognized from what has been shown regarding Divine influx, direct and indirect, in the places referred to in 9682.