As a child, I’ve always thought what twelve days of Christmas mean. What was the relevance of the number twelve to Christmas? I must have missed it on my Catechism classes. There is even a song that supports it called, Twelve Days of Christmas, and it’s about the gifts coming from his/her true love.
Lo and behold, today is the twelfth day the Three Kings found its way to baby Jesus. They brought with them gold, frankincense, and myrrh. These are valuable items and were standard gifts given to honor a king or deity in the ancient world: gold as a precious metal, frankincense as perfume or incense, and myrrh as anointing oil (Biblical Archaeology Society Staff, November 2019).
So yes, my friends, today is the twelfth day of Christmas! Customarily, today is the day we take down our Christmas decors because Christmas did not end after Christmas day! It was only the first day of Christmas! Yes, I am writing/saying all these with excitement! So tonight, I took down our little nativity scene at our front door. I had mixed emotions.
On another note, today is also called Epiphany Sunday. Epiphany means manifestation or revelation. And this is the manifestation of Jesus as Messiah of Israel, Son of God and Savior of the world. It was first celebrated by the wise men or the three kings as they were guided by a star to find and pay homage to the king of the Jews.
Personally, I thought, what is my epiphany? What did God reveal to me today? I have two girls whose names were inspired by stars so I should be well-lit, I chuckled. But tonight, when I put my older child to bed, I saw the bible verse I placed on her wall. It is from Philippians 4:13,
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
As much as I want my child to be reminded with it, I was and am spoken by it strongly tonight. He tells me that I can and I will because my strength will be coming from Him.
What is your epiphany?
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