Love Beyond Expectation

    Today is the day of Epiphany, the day in the Church when we remember and celebrate the coming of the Magi to the stable with gifts for the infant King.  It is also marks the end of Christmas and beginning of the season of Light.  This is also a day when many, if they have not already, will take down their Christmas decorations.
    When my wife and I were married, she had a tradition of putting up the Christmas decorations Thanksgiving weekend and taking them down around New Year’s.  My family would get a “live” tree, so we didn’t put our stuff up until almost Christmas Eve, but we’d leave ours up until January 6th.  We combined our traditions, and we put everything up Thanksgiving weekend, but we keep it up until after January 6th.
    As I reflect upon this day and the task before my family, I wonder how many of us will pack Christmas away (or already have).  These Magi, considered Gentile outsiders, came and brought gifts, and the message from God was that even those outside the normal realm of religious influence would be invited to be part of the Kingdom of God.  There is not putting away anything in their gift-giving, nor in God’s message, rather the very opposite is true – there is a bursting forth, a breaking open, and a tearing down of any barriers or boxes that humans can try to place around God.
    The message of Christmas, that God would send the Son, is a marvel, but for God to reveal a bigger picture, that all would be invited, is even more astounding.  And the gift received, both the Son and the invitation, is all about love.  It is about God loving so much that God wanted it all...wanted us all.  It is a love beyond expectation and limits...a love that we can so easily close ourselves off to, simply because we can’t imagine the vastness of such mercy and grace.

    Evidence of such love is peppered throughout the Bible, most especially in the New Testament.  Matthew recounts Jesus saying, “Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest....”(Matthew 11:28).  John quotes Jesus as saying, “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but...the Light has come into the world...so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.” (John 3: 17, 19, 21) And John wrote in his first letter (1 John 4: 9), “This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.”
    God didn’t have to do this, and yet God did.  God reached out to make a way for all to be a part of God’s Kingdom and receive the fullness of God’s gift.  And the result is that no one can, or should ever, put away such a gift, for once it is given and received, it resides in our hearts and souls, and if we allow it, God will bless us and others through the gift.

    I have been reading a devotional book entitled, Watch for the Light: readings for Advent and Christmas,” and the reading for Epiphany is simple but profound – a poem from the opera “Amahl and the Night Visitors” by Gian Carlo Menotti: 

Love Alone

The Child we seek
doesn't need our gold.
On love, on love alone
he will build his kingdom.
His pierced hand will hold no scepter,
his haloed head will wear no crown;
his might will not be built
on your toil.
Swifter than lightning
he will soon walk among us.
He will bring us new life
and receive our death,
and the keys to his city
belong to the poor.

    For me this poem captures the amazing love of God that moves beyond our expectation.  As I put away the Christmas decorations and begin the process of moving into Epiphany, my hope and prayer is that neither you nor I will put away the messages of Christmas nor Epiphany, but instead let it burst for as love for all.


How might God be calling you to take the gift you've received this Christmas and share it with the world?