Epiphany

Jan. 2011


I love finding attractive cards and gifts at after Christmas sales. Buying my cards at the local Hallmark store last year was a traditional shopping event. Being a child of the 60’s and a young woman of the 70’s explains why I was drawn to the boxes with the dove of peace and the Beatles’ quote, “Let it be”. Opening the packed up holiday decorations gives me a pleasant surprise when I see “the stuff” I had bought a year earlier to prepare for the next season.

We are now in the season of Epiphany –here are notes of explanation from Wikipedia:

• Epiphany (holiday), a Christian holiday on January 6 celebrating the visit of the Magi to the infant Jesus

• Epiphany (feeling), a sudden realization of great truth

- I was blessed with a little glimpse of God’s personal message. How does God “speak” to us? I’ve written about this before and find if often in my thoughts. One of the precious pastors at my church says that He repeats himself and keeps nagging us until we finally “get it”. We find these messages of truth through The Bible, through other people, through reading books, through music, through art, and through Christmas cards?!

In the last year I have been involved in several service opportunities through the church that lead me to get to know an incredible woman who has graciously opened up her heart to share her wealth of experiences with me. Along with sharing daily life concerns, she also gives me books to read. The one she shared in December was Showing Mary by Renita J. Weems, sending me off as we said goodbye from Starbucks’ parking lot with the encouraging words, “You will get it.” Oh my – I read the story of Mary from Luke 1 with brand new understanding. In Luke 1:38 Mary says to the angel Gabriel “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.” In Renita’s Chapter 1 she expounds on Mary’s willingness to serve God and paraphrases her words to say “Let it be.” This a quote from Showing Mary that speaks to me: How many times have we said no, wanted to say no, came close to saying no, did say no to an invitation based solely on the fact that we didn’t want to be inconvenienced, ridiculed, or burdened?...Every time you resist God’s invitation to do something new, you miss God’s opportunity to be renewed. Reading this book gave me an epiphany – I realized the message of the Beatle’s song that I sang along to for so many years – Mother Mary comes to me speaking words of wisdom, “Let it be.”

I told Darrell my story of how “Let it Be” had become a spiritual message for me to continue to be open to experiences that God brings to me and to not shy away from fear of too much involvement or fear of critical judgments. Guess what?! He had been given this same theme as a personal spiritual message. One of his closest friends passed away in December and he had worried about how to let his friend go and how much to get personally involved in his family affairs – the message he was given was “Let it be.”

Let us celebrate Epiphany and resolve to answer God’s personal call by reciting Mary’s words of wisdom, “I am the Lord’s servant. Let it be to me as you say.”