Last week, we celebrated the Feast of the Epiphany. The three kings Melchior, Balthazar, and Caspar journeyed to Bethlehem to give the Christ their gifts. They studied the Heavens and sought Him over time, over distance, despite difficulty. It had to be a faith journey, layered with scholarship, fellowship, and a deep desire for true knowledge. They came away with so much more than even what they hoped. They went home different from how they came.
Now, as we go about our lives, are we imitating the three kings? Are we seeking to find God? Are we studying to understand how God speaks to our individual hearts, and reveals Himself iin the extraordinary beauty of all of Creation and in those we encounter? What a great and wonderful mystery is this, our approachable God, willing to be vulnerable to not only the world, but to each of us?
It is an amazing thing to ponder, the approachable King, who desires our presence. Should we not run to Him, and try to beat Peter and John to the tomb? Should we not leap out of the boat and keep our eyes fixed on Him as we walk upon the water? Should we not “do whatever He tells us.” to find the better vintage in our relationships than mere water? Should we not want to offer our gold (our labors), our frankincense (our prayers), and our myrrh (our sufferings)?
The world does not understand the mystery of our faith; that God not only is, but made us for Him. God desires our friendship so deeply, He’s shed His blood to offer us redemption from all the ways we’ve estranged ourselves. He offers us the promise of a love that was, is and ever will be. All He asks in return is for us to partake in the redeeming of the world through our prayers, actions, words, and works here. We are to bring Him to all we encounter.
When we go to receive the Eucharist, what are we bringing to the Lord of all? God wants us to approach, to bring all of our everything, our relationships, our worries, our struggles, our past, our pain, our hopes, our dreams, and yes our sins to Him. He will take them all, and He will offer us, Himself, as a babe, as the paschal lamb, as the Eucharist. He promises to walk with us through it all, and if we allow Him, to pour grace into every wound, to make us whole and holy.
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