Today, Epiphany, happens to be one of the most important days of the church year. In fact, in the earliest years of the Christian church it assumed a prominence far outweighing even that of Christmas. And, why was that? It was because it celebrated the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles--in the person of the Magi. That meant that the glorious good news of Christ, the Gospel, was for everyone, regardless of race or background. This is particularly relevant today, for the Magi were probably of different ethnic or racial or national backgrounds from the Jews and were probably adherents of an entirely different religion or belief system. And who knows what their political beliefs might have been! And yet, they came to worship and pay homage to the Christ Child. They were welcome and included.

This is also quite relevant to many of the people we rub shoulders with. There are many who consider themselves unworthy in some respect or another. (Actually, we all are). Or that their lives have not been 'up to snuff' or that it's too late, or other such excuses. But Jesus' acceptance and welcome of the thief on the cross illustrates that no one is ever too late or too bad (or anything else for that matter). Like the Magi, he was welcome and so are all of us. It is a piece of good news that we need to 'get out there', for it is desperately needed.

I have to admit that waiting is not one of my strong suits. In fact, I will do almost anything to avoid having to wait around and do nothing. In a line up at the bank or at the grocery store till I routinely engage in a conversation with the cashier or other people in line. And, at doctor or clinic or hospital waiting rooms (note the name), I generally take something to read or a list to work on.

So, in one of my rural parishes when I was frustrated by the lack of results, and was told to wait, told that the results might not ever be noticeable, at least in my lifetime, I was less than happy. I like to see results--including from God!

But that process of waiting, waiting upon God, is exactly what the past heroes of our faith had to endure. And, believe it or not, it was also something that Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, had to endure as well. He had to 'put up' with thirty something years before He saw the intended result! That prospect is less than thrilling for me, but at least, it does provide some perspective.

Some twenty years ago I participated in an epic and life-changing walk, the 764 km. El Camino de Santiago. At its onset, I laid out what I thought should be certain objectives, certain things that I wanted to take place during, or because of that walk. (Certainly, these were things that I thought were agreeable with the will of God). But guess what: God ignored all of them. In fact, He ignored, not only my stated objectives, but even the final destination of the walk, Santiago. Even the destination was apparently unimportant to Him. No, all that He said was 'trust Me.' In other words, 'don't worry about where you will end up--or even what will happen today. Instead, just be with Me today and trust Me regardless.

In a sense that was exactly what God said to Moses. Once Moses was on the journey, God's journey, he was to remember and trust that God was with Him, and working in and through him, and that, ultimately, all he was to do was to trust Him.

Here's a question for the New Year: just where does one find God? Or, put another way, where or how can we find closeness with God? For some people, it's a place, perhaps somewhere out-of-doors or perhaps in some church. For others, it is merely in the quiet of their own hearts. Whatever our choice happens to be, there are two bigger truths. One is that God greatly desires this relationship, this intimacy with us, probably more than anything else in the universe. And two, God goes out of His way to facilitate it and make it happen. Just think of Jacob's vision of the heavenly staircase and his conversation with God for instance: how many of us ever have dreams like that? Don't you think that God sort of 'engineered' it? I think so. Anyway, I believe that growing close to Him is more than 'just' possible but rather, very doable instead, and something worth pursuing.

My meditation for today touches on a subject that is most fitting for the start of a new year, namely, how we can become closer to God and how we can grow in Him and be nourished by Him. My meditation only begins the conversation, but bids us think about how we might individually 'take care of this' in our own lives--by prayer, perhaps, or by the study and meditation of Scripture, or by worship, or by small group study groups. There are many ways and it behoves us to examine our lives and see what works best for each of us individually. So, I leave you with that task.

Today's Scripture passage is a wonderful story of forgiveness, redemption and a brand-new start. It is a great one to preface our new year, which is a great time to reflect on times past, and make new plans for the future.

If it is true as someone once said that the darkest hour is just before dawn, then the coming of Jesus Christ into our world has to be unmitigated good news. The world He entered into in person was certainly a dark and dangerous place, and so is our world today. So, to know that Jesus was, and is, the light that shines in the darkness, such that the darkness cannot overcome it, is good news for all of us.

John the Baptist truly lived up to his name, which means 'gift of God', and certainly made use of that gift in what was a remarkably short and ill-ending life. Imagine: in those few short years, he truly prepared the way of the Lord, got people ready, and even introduced people to Jesus. That's a pretty remarkable achievement.

For me, that cannot help but make me think about my gifts, our gifts, and how we make use of them, whether our time on earth is relatively short or rather lengthy. Just what impact and contribution are we making to our world, to our community, to our circle of family and friends, and to our church? Maybe this Christmas/ pre New Year time is a good time to assess this, and maybe even make some resolutions of what we might continue, though more intentionally perhaps, or what we might start.

All of us have been blessed by God in oh-so many ways. Living on this planet Earth, and living in Canada, for instance. Having access to a level of housing, food, health care and necessities that much of the world only dreams of. And then the blessings of our faith, the blessing of knowing and being known by Jesus Christ...and so much else.

Sadly, far too often we forget about all our blessings and grumble or complain instead. And sometimes we grumble about things that really are our blessings, our health care, for instance, or our churches or our momentary afflictions and problems.

The Virgin Mary would most certainly be facing afflictions and problems when she said 'yes' to God. Here she was, probably not even out of her teen years as yet, saying 'yes' to something that would profoundly change her life and upset all the plans that she and Joseph had made together--her entire future thrown into turmoil, as it were. And yes, because of her 'yes', Jesus was able to come into the world and the world became a better place. And so it is with our 'yes's' as well: God enters our world through us, becomes enfleshed in us, and the world is changed for the better. So maybe our prayer should be, "Lord, help me to say 'yes', yes to your blessings even when they don't appear to be blessings at all.

Today in the church's calendar we celebrate St. Thomas the Apostle. He happens to be one of my favourite saints and, to me, a wonderful role model of what it means to be curious, willing to search and seek and ask questions, and wanting to know the answers. To me, we should all be like that.