Shepherds and Kings

From the very beginning, God taught us what is most important. Today we celebrate Epiphany, which means the manifestation of the Lord. It is the day when we celebrate the three Kings. Jesus, born in a stable, is visited by shepherds and kings.

From the very beginning, God taught us what is most important. Those who came to the stable were the rich and the poor. They were simple and elegant. Those who came spanned the spectrum of knowledge. The Kings were learned scholars, and the Shepherds were peasants and unlearned. 

From the very beginning, God taught us what is most important. The shepherds came empty-handed, and the Kings brought the most extravagant of gifts. Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh gifts worthy of a King.

From the very beginning, God taught us what is most important. Simply, come to Jesus. Come bringing the truth of who we are and the openness of our hearts. Come bringing our willingness to see God in the simplest of places and among the humblest of people.

From the very beginning, God taught us what is most important. Rank has no place in the presence of God. A lowly shepherd standing next to a King. Both were overwhelmed with awe. Nothing dividing them but uniting them is the Savior of the world.

From the very beginning, God taught us what is most important. Jesus is the only one that gets to be the center of our attention. In that stable, nothing mattered except the child and the wonder of God among them. Jesus is most important then and now. Making Him the center of our lives is a choice we make when we stand beside a manger in a stable.

From the very beginning, God taught us what is most important. When there is no room in the Inn, and we are disappointed by life and its hardships, find a simple place, a stable, and know that it is there that God will come to you.

From the very beginning, God taught us what is most important. The vulnerability of a baby born in a manger can change the course of history. Our feeling of inadequacy, inability, and doubt is precisely what God wants to use to continue to change the world. If we are open, He can do it.

From the very beginning, God taught us what is most important. That a baby born in a manger two millennia ago is not a memory to be recalled but a new beginning. God asks us to be reborn in love every Christmas. To be His son or daughter sent into the world to make manifest His love and presence.

From the very beginning, God taught us what is most important. He is. We are. Our relationship with Him is the most important. If we are faithful to that relationship, we, too, will draw shepherds and kings to the Lord. We are to be His living presence in the world. 

From the very beginning, God taught us what is most important. Dear Lord. We pray that we may have eyes to see, ears to hear, and the resilience of heart to be Jesus in our broken and suffering world. The manger was the beginning. How we reflect to our world this great mystery of God, made one like us, will be the manifestation of the Lord in 2021. 

From the very beginning, God taught us what is most important. We are the shepherds, and we are the kings. 

In God’s Unending Love,

Gwen