EPIPHANY

Epiphany is day on the Christian calendar when the Church celebrates the manifestation of the birth of Christ to the Gentiles as represented by the Magi (Matthew 2:1–12).  This day officially ends the Advent/Christmas season, and sets the church onto the road which leads to the cross and resurrection of Jesus.  

This is a huge day in the Church, so important that the apostle Paul saw himself as a preacher to the Gentiles.  Christianity would not remain in the Israel.  It would burst out of Jerusalem, into Judea, Samaria, and even to the very ends of the earth.  Jesus’ invitation was to “all who are weary and heaven-laden” (Matthew 11:28).  His promise was, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).

The invitation is for you and me to come within the embrace of God who is reaching out to us and inviting us into relationship with Him.  We are not alone.  God is with us.  Jesus is Lord.  The very life of God has come within history and invited us to live in His life.  

Our song is, 

Just as I am, without one plea 

but that Thy blood was shed for me, 

And that Thou bidd’st me come to Thee,  

O Lamb of God, I come! I come! 

-- Charlotte Elliott, 1834 

Jesus invites us into the very life of God.  In Him, our lives are covered by amazing grace, amazing love, and amazing mercy. 

I think about what all this means to me and I remember the words of the wonderful chorus by Gloria and Bill Gaither,

Something beautiful, something good;

All my confusion He understood. 

All I had to offer Him was brokenness and strife,

But He made something beautiful of my life.

I am a Gentile to whom God has reached out, with redemption in His heart, and redeemed.  Who would have thought it?  Who would have dreamed it?  Who could have imagined it?  

Join with me, take what God is offering, and live in the abundant life of Christ.