Only He Can See : Epiphany

Boy it is hard to believe that sometimes, isn’t it? I don’t know if you know about Corrie Ten Boom. She survived a concentration camp as a young girl. so for her to say that is quite significant. For her to survive that makes anything I have gone through or will go through pale by comparison. Of course, life is not a game of comparing and measuring.

But God sure does put people in our path at just the right time. Sometimes we do not see it for years, the connections and interconnections are not necessarily obvious at all. But of course, since we just finished the Christmas season, we think about those things. Or at least I do. When you watch the movie It’s a Wonderful Life George Bailey gets the chance to see how different everyone’s lives would have been without him.

I know we all have days where we do not feel as though we make a difference or register a ripple with our little tiny stones. But of course, we are so wrong! Our miraculous yet little lives have meaning. As we march forward today and everyday, we can carry God’s message in our eyes, hearts, actions, words, prayers, hugs, and oh so many ways.

“At every moment, do what love requires”. 

When I was a young girl in school, besides the pledge of allegiance, we began each school day with a prayer. The prayer was called The Morning Offering prayer, and it was a way to dedicate ourselves to God each day. I was taught to make each day my prayer to God. Isn’t that a lovely concept? By doing this, it becomes more natural to take care of myself: eat properly, exercise, pray, be kind, be industrious, be unselfish, laugh, love, etc. What are we called to do? To be His hands and feet; to bring Him to each other. What we do each day is our gift to Him.

It is hard to be mindful of that at every moment. But today my prayer, hope, and goal is that in my moments and hours that I be mindful of Him, and how that should fuel my day and decisions so that I do not just run on automatic. Today is Epiphany. The wise men/kings/ magi brought gifts to the Baby Jesus.

They journeyed home as changed men. They knew they had seen The Redeemer. We are not told what became of them, but we can guess. They were mindful and awestruck. They did not go tell Herod where Jesus was. We, too, are called to mindfulness. It is a virtue that can be in short supply– as our other responsibilities and interests cuse us to forget to be mindful.