As we journey through the Christian seasons this year, through Advent onto Christmas and then Epiphany onto Lent, I have been very conscious of the movement from the crib to the cross. God's revealing presence leaving the stable, touching lives all the way to the cross.
Epiphany took on a new dimension when I travelled to New Orleans, where they begin Mardi Gras celebrations on 6th January (the feast of the Epiphany) right through until Ash Wednesday arrives and Lent begins. We tend to overlook the length and importance of Epiphany, a season of revealing light, a season when God lets us in on the wonder of the gift that was given in Bethlehem when God became one of us. The baby whose birth we celebrated just a short time ago, is the man with whom we now tarry in the wilderness of Lent, the man whose passion and death we will remember before emerging into the joy of Easter.
God with us through birth, through life and death and through Resurrection.
The Chrismon tree that the young folks decorated during advent and on whose branches we hung stars with the names of all those we were missing at Christmas time has already been transformed into a cross that will grace our sanctuary through Lent and Easter, a tangible reminder of that journey from crib to cross, a reminder that God IS in all of life.
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