Greeting Holy People of God,
Happy New Year! I am grateful to welcome 2025 which I think will prove to be a very interesting year because God goes ahead of us and it’s always interesting when God is in the mix of things.
I think for 7 years we have celebrated Epiphany with Epiphany words. These words act like a star to guide us through the season of Epiphany or through the year. These words give us another talking point for our faith as well as a word for us to focus on as a community.
In 2024 our Epiphany word for our faith community was INSIGHT. I immediately went to the Bible and shared with you the places where the word insight was used. Not surprisingly, the word showed up in Proverbs most often.
Proverbs 3:5 advises us not to rely on our own insight but rather trust God. Learning about wisdom and instruction is paired with understanding words of insight in Proverbs 1:2. Crying out for insight leads us to articulate our understanding (Proverbs 2:3). Proverb 7:4 invites us to think of wisdom as our sister and insight as our intimate friend.
So I will visit with my intimate friend, Insight in my annual report. I will use this word to guide me as I reflect back on 2024 and our life together. I will confess now, this has been a difficult word. I placed the word on our staff agenda, so we would look at it each week. It is a word that speaks of discovery as patterns emerge to reveal something we have not seen in a focused way. Looking back over the year and through our committee reports I will sit with Insight.
On Sunday, January 5 at the 8:30 worship service, I invited Grace Ode to select our community word for us and she pulled out the word, GRACE, her very name and we all chuckled with delight. GRACE will be a very good word for us in 2025. In preparing for Confirmation Class, I came across a flash card definition from Luther House of Study resources; GRACE- the way God looks upon you with favor; the Lord’s disposition towards you as His loved prize.
We are off to a good start. After worship, I asked Grace what word she drew for herself and it was NAME which stirred her curiosity. I immediately thought of Adam and his naming of the new creatures in creation. I hope Grace will have fun and discovery as her Epiphany word guides her. In this Mini Bits, Carolyn Laxson will share with you her new word. Carolyn has used Epiphany words to not only share with us but she also posts her articles on Facebook and then it becomes a tool of evangelism as she shares God’s good news in Jesus Christ beyond our walls.
This year, I drew the word, PRAYER for my Epiphany word. I’m looking forward to spending time in this word. What’s your word? If you haven’t drawn your word, you can find a little basket on the table near the entrance.
Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,
Pastor Connie Spitzack
