We celebrated the end of the 12 Days of Christmas and the Epiphany on January 6th, which also happens to be my birthday. My awesome husband took the day off work so we could hang out as a family and he got up with the boys when they woke up at the crack of dawn so that I could sleep in (which is the most amazing birthday gift!) I then got up and was able to read the daily readings and daily devotion from Blessed Is She. Have you signed up for their daily devotions yet at Blessedisshe.net? If not, I recommend doing so as it is a FANTASTIC resource to bring you closer to God's word and deepen your prayer life.
I commonly feel that God is speaking to me through his words in the Bible and today was one of those days! In today's Gospel Mark 6:34-44 it is the story of the loaves and fishes. But, before we get to the main part of the Gospel Jesus's disciples came to him and said "This is a lonely place, and the hour is now late". It is often in that lonely dark place in our lives here in the world today, just like the disciples, Yet, if we watch and wait, Jesus comes to us to help us out of our despair and help us see the good news! God has recently asked our family to carry a pretty big cross, which I will explain when I can find the right words. For now, I ask for you to please pray for our family.
Even with the cross that we are carrying we still had a nice celebration of the Epiphany and my birthday together as a family. We were able to bless our home with the Epiphany House Blessing and our blessed chalk from our priest with my husband leading the prayers. I love this simple action and knowing that all are blessed who enter our home. We will leave the marking on our front door until Pentecost which will be on May 24th this year.
We put up the last of our 12 days of Christmas ornaments and brought all of our wise men to join Jesus, Mary and Joseph at the Nativity scenes. We talked about the long, hard journey that the wise men must have had, but that they wanted to be able to see and honor Jesus. Our children love all of the different nativity scenes that we have around our home and look at them or play with them often throughout the days.
Then our children wanted to read their books about the Epiphany again as they have become some of their favorite from our Advent/Christmas list. The Last Straw was probably one of our very favorites from the entire list and our boys almost have it memorized. Their favorite part is the sweet illustration at the end where the camel falls to his knees out of exhaustion from his long hard journey and the wise men follow suit. Then little Baby Jesus reaches out his hand to the camel and touches him and takes all of his pain away! It is so comforting to know God's healing power is able to take away our pain.
We had a fun family outing painting pottery at a local venue. It was a great activity to bring our family together with something that we all enjoy! It is also a special way to preserve memories by taking the precious gifts home. They even let the little ones paint on paper to keep themselves occupied while others keep working on their pottery pieces!
We had a relaxing afternoon and evening with our family at home, which is one of my favorite things to do! Cuddling on the couch, reading stories, playing living room football, having a dance party; those actions of daily life make me truly appreciate the gift of my family. We are so blessed, and I know that no matter what cross that God asks us to carry that he is there with us. Thank you God for another year, for another day, for another moment with those who I love!
Lovely post!
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