Importance: 10%
The Big Idea: Used as OS📃Epistle Jan 2023
Even though we have passed Christmas, I hope that this epistle finds you still in the light of the Christmas Season! I am so thankful to serve among such a kind community here at Our Saviors. All of your Christmas greetings and generosity to me and my family have been greatly appreciated. I give thanks to God for all of you and pray that He continues to grow you in His service this new year!
An Epiphany reflection I would like to share with you starts in my childhood. I have always had a special place in my heart for the celebration of Epiphany. So much effort and focus is put into Christmas (and rightfully so). Yet Epiphany is the completion of the Church’s Christmas celebrations.
I remember growing up we did not open presents on Christmas, but instead opened one each of the twelve days leading up to Epiphany. As the days would tick by there was a steady excitement continuing our Christmas celebration. Then finally, as we remembered the Wise Men arriving to give gifts to the baby Jesus, it was fitting to end with our focus back on Jesus, the true gift to us all.
As a child this spread out excitement was fun to wonder what I would unwrap each day. But as I reflect back, I realize the greater meaning behind celebrating Epiphany that this family tradition helped to plant within me. It is so easy to build up Christmas to a fever pitch that all of the sudden slides into gloomy winter. As the sun continues taking its winter rest, we so easily get sucked back into the monotony of our daily life after such a busy and hectic Christmas season. Epiphany stands as a reminder that the coming of Jesus is not a once a year celebration but a continual gift we are welcomed to unwrap fresh each day. The love, forgiveness, and peace Jesus offers is meant for us every day. Just as the Wisemen came as foreigners to bring Jesus their finest gifts, we too are invited in: “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ” (Ephesians 2:13).
We come to Jesus and offer our time and resources not because He needs them or because it gains us favor. Rather we follow the example of the Wise Men and bring the best of what we have out of awe and reverence. We have been given access to the Savior, the true ruler of the world, who is working to restore all of creation. Jesus died and rose for you. A simple sentence, but one that a lifetime of pondering will only begin to unwrap. As we grow and digest this simple truth I pray that the fullness of such a profound expression of God’s love and provision will begin to shape you more and more.
So in the end, the giving really only goes one way: from God to me and you. Everything we give is but a copy, or a return, of the generosity that Christ has first shown us.
“The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.”
- 1 Timothy 1:5