This Sunday, we gather for the first time in this new year to celebrate Epiphany. I am as eager as anyone to leave 2020 behind. But, I wonder if the Epiphany story of the mysterious, foreign strangers might challenge us to think differently about the year we’ve had.
The Magi—we don’t exactly know who they were, we only know they weren’t kings and they weren’t Jewish. They followed stars, not the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob. They appear to practice divination and other spiritual rituals that we might label occult and that our scriptures label cursed. And, yet, God was present and active in their lives and caused a star to shine forth—a star that led them to worship the savior of the world.
Our God is omnipresent—always present, always near. God is especially present in the places and situations when we expect or feel his absence. God’s grace is sufficient even when we are certain sin and brokenness is just too much. As we look back on a year drenched in loss and pain and sin, we must be a people who seek stars—a people who search the seemingly overwhelming darkness for the steady, brilliant light of God’s presence. And, we must be a people who follow that light.
This last year can’t be undone. The losses and wounds are real. But, so are the stars and so are the gifts. Listen in as we uncover them as together.
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