As the Christmas season comes to an end with the feast of the Epiphany of the Lord, I hope that you all had a peaceful and relaxing Christmas celebration.  May you experience the peace of the season through out the New Year. 

In all the pre-Christmas hype and frenzy in the media, one of the hot topics this year was the idea of ‘re-gifting,” that is, repackaging (or not) a gift received and giving it to someone else.  I don’t know how you feel about that idea.  I can’t recall if I ever did that, although I don’t think I did.  And, frankly, I don’t care to know if anyone has ever re-gifted something to me.  Life is too short to not be gracious and thankful for the kindness and love behind the giving of a gift.  All that is a long way of saying that I approve of re-gifting.

Isn’t that what God, too, wants us to do?

“For God so loved the world He gave his only Son.”  We just finished celebrating the birth of Jesus – God’s gift to us.  We are to embrace Him, to allow Him into our lives – body, spirit, and soul, to make Him our own.

And then we are to give Him away (Divine re-gifting). 

God did not call me to keep Jesus under wraps, keep Him for myself, worship Him in private.  We have been given a great Gift.  We are the ones who are now called to re-gift the world.  Jesus told us so: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.  And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”

That is what Christmas and Epiphany is all about.  We wrap the Jesus story with our own story and through our experiences, our lives, and our example we gift Him anew to all whom we meet.

Peace, Blessings, and Joy
Deacon Stan