Our Stories January 2022

Epiphany
By Judith Lake

This is the season in the church calendar called Epiphany. Epiphany is defined as “a supernatural experience of a sudden and striking realization. This realization usually follows a process of significant thought about a question or a problem.” It is a “Hallelujah Moment”!  In the Church it refers to the realization that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and the season begins with the three wise men coming from the East bearing gifts for the Christ child.  They gave Him lavish gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh recognizing that He was indeed “the King of the Jews.”

This familiar Bible story brings to my mind a sweet memory of my growing up years in a quaint New England town.  As a young college girl, I walked through the village square, with snow falling all around me, to sing in the choir in my old church on Main Street.  The pipe organ played Bach and familiar hymns, but one favorite carol spoke a new and deeper message to me:

“In the bleak mid-winter, frosty wind made moan; earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone; Snow had fallen, snow on snow, -- snow on snow -- in the bleak mid-winter, long ago.

Our God, heaven cannot hold Him, nor earth sustain; heaven and earth shall flee away when He comes to reign: in the bleak mid-winter a stable sufficed – the Lord God incarnate, Jesus Christ.

What can I give Him, poor as I am?  If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb; if I were a wise man, I would do my part; yet what I can I give Him – give my heart.”

[words: Christina Rossetti (1830-1894) ~ music: Gustav Theodore Holst (1874-1934)]

The English poet, Christina Rossetti, who penned these lyrics asked the question – “What can I give Him?” and she seemed to have had that hallelujah moment to “give my heart.” As a young girl I wondered – “What does that really mean – to give my heart?”

Nearly six years later on a bleak, mid-winter day with snow on the ground, I was a stranger in the East asking Jesus to help me to believe in Him and to trust Him.  He was offering me lavish gifts of faith, forgiveness, friendship and faithfulness -- and so much more.  The Epiphany came to me then – and continues to come to me every day now:

Jesus Christ is the Son of God! -- Give Him your heart!