January 6, 2011

Happy Epiphany!

My sister-in-law introduced me many years ago to the idea of celebrating Epiphany. Her family celebrates it instead of (or is it "in addition to") Christmas. Epiphany is the date that the Church set as the date that the Wise Men brought their gifts to Jesus. It is celebrated on the twelfth day after Christmas, which is probably where the song "Twelve Days of Christmas" originated. So a few years ago, I decided to try and celebrate the holiday in a very low key way--have a cake on January 6th and give kids verses that Eric is given when he prays for the kids.

When Elizabeth was about two years old, God inspired us to pray and ask Him for verses for our kids for each year. Then, when they became adults or left for college, we could give them their life verses. I bought a scrapbook for each of the girls to make the verses really pretty. When the boys were born, we added scrapbooks for them and gave them verses. There is a gap of two years around Kyle's birth in which Eric was too busy to pray, mainly because at that time we were traveling at Christmas. It was one of the many reasons we decided to stay at home for Christmas. Initially, we would present them to the kids as the first Christmas present. However, when a pile of presents is waiting for you, a gift from Jesus that involves words is not that impressive. Eventually, it became the reason we started celebrating Epiphany, so that Jesus wouldn't have to compete ;-).

The really interesting thing is how these verses have sometimes been so timely. For instance, the Christmas before all the upheaval of Eric's layoff hit us, God gave Elizabeth, who was probably most affected by the move in terms of friends, Psalm 34:15 and He gave to Kyle the verses John 6:32-33, to remind us of His provision. Jessi's verse, Psalm 119:108 encouraged us to praise God through it all, and John's verse, Romans 3:22, reminded us that God's best provision for us was His righteousness, which we didn't deserve on our own merits.

It is amazing how faithful God has been in giving Eric verses for the kids and how faithfully Eric has been praying every year for his children. Good job, honey! I love you!

Does anyone else celebrate Epiphany?

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