God's Time

"There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven...."
(Ecclesiastes 3:1)

There is usually what feels like a sudden silence after the flurry of Christmas passes and the new year begins. This year is different. I find myself needing to stop and nurture a post-Christmas silence in my soul. We need such times.

We received a unique calendar this year for Christmas. Rather than the standard (to us) format of printing a month or week or day on each page, it is arranged according to the Christian (liturgical) seasons. The first day of this calendar was not on January 1, but on December 2 -- the first day of Advent. After a page for the weeks of Advent is a page for the twelve days of Christmas. Today we enter Epiphany -- a time when we acknowledge and experience again the person and mission of Jesus. It is a time to think particularly of growth and discipleship, of God drawing us into focused relationship with Him through Christ.

This calendar was a little disorienting at first. I'm accustomed to thinking in terms of weeks and months. But this particularly calendar quickly grew on me, particularly as I went searching to find out more. According to the website I found, this calendar was created to encourage and help Christians "living in God's time" as we journey together through the story of God each year. Christians in more liturgical denominations have been living by similar calendars for many, many, many years. I look forward to joining them in it.

More on the lectionary later. In the meantime, here are the passages for today:

• Isaiah 60:1-6
• Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14
• Ephesians 3:1-12
• Matthew 2:1-12