Epiphany Journey

Friday 15th January Matthew 2:12 “And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.”

If you have a SatNav in your car like mine you will often hear the words come over the speakers, “recalculating route”. Sometimes this is because I have ignored a previous instruction or find myself travelling off piste. At other times, the SatNav linked to the latest traffic news, will sense an obstruction, traffic jam or even an accident on my planned journey and will calculate and advise a new route.

I can either ignore the instructions and plough on only to inevitably find my pathway blocked and the frustration of becoming trapped in a traffic jam.

It’s interesting that prior to arriving at Bethlehem the Magi took their own initiative that found them in the almost precarious position of being duped into conspiring with the tyrant Herod’s wicked plan. Yet having arrived and worshiped the new born king, they now find their minds attuned to heavenly directions.

Is there something for us here too, that left to our own resources we are in danger of conspiring to overturn that which as Paul put it,  the “things that are holy and right and pure and beautiful and good.” However, by entering the holy presence of Christ, we can become malleable to his purpose and follow his leading.” 

A Prayer: We thank You for this day. Father, You are the same today as You were yesterday, and as You are tomorrow. Since the beginning of mankind, You sought to have a relationship with Your creation, to instruct us in the way that we ought to go. Father, today we pray for discernment. We pray that the Holy Spirit that indwells within us with give us a peace beyond understanding to know precisely when something is You, and when something is not. Father, we want to be obedient to Your call in our lives. We pray for such discernment to not only make wise choices, but in the course of it all to know we can trust Your guiding hand. In Jesus Name, Amen