Welcome to January 2022! There is so much energy around celebrating the holidays in the month of December that we often forget to extend the same sentiments to its successor, January. Sure, we say “Happy New Year,” but that comment often only has a shelf-life of a few days. Pretty quickly we find ourselves in the gray days of January. Maybe there’s some snow on the ground. But it’s basically back to school and back to work as usual.
The church calendar treats the month of January a bit differently. Early on, there is the day of Epiphany (January 6). This is a time to remember how Jesus was born, not just as the Jewish Messiah, but as the Savior of the world through his revelation (Epiphany) to the foreign magi after his birth. Next comes January 9, the Sunday in which we remember another revelation/epiphany when Jesus was baptized and God’s voice acknowledged him as the beloved Son. Our secular calendars next remind us of the powerful legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., with a national holiday (January 17) near to the date of his birth. There’s a common theme in these special days built around the promise that God is with us, revealing God’s will and purposes through God’s word, God’s Son, and prophetic voices from God’s modern-day disciples.
What is wonderful about these special January days is that they all speak to how God appears in surprising places right in our very midst. The magi, following a star from afar, arrived quietly in the hushed town of Bethlehem and left by a different route to avoid drawing attention to themselves. The baptism of Jesus did not happen in the busy city of Jerusalem or in the middle of a crowded public square, but along the banks of the Jordan River. And Martin Luther King, Jr. was only a young preacher 25 years old when he accepted the call to Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, and within a year, would be the leader of the hallmark Civil Rights action, the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
You may not think that amazing things can happen where you are—but aren’t there stars above you every night? Aren’t there rivers flowing not far from where you live? Aren’t the challenges faced in Montgomery still present in Pittsburgh and across America today? And isn’t the same God still revealing God’s will for this world through scripture, prophets old and new, and the risen Savior? Instead of thinking that God is missing from where you are, a January faith resolution would be to look with fresh eyes to see signs of God right here and now in this new year.
Maybe this takes a bit of imagination. That’s okay—human beings have great imaginations! James Joyce could write about Dublin from his desk in Paris. Willa Cather wrote her prairie novels in New York City. Mark Twain wrote Huckleberry Finn while in Hartford, Connecticut. Henri Rousseau was a painter of lush jungles although he spent his life as a French toll collector far from Africa. Your particular location is not a liability if your desire is to faithfully care for the entire world. And in the same way, the God who lovingly cares for the whole world is just as close to you as God is to everyone else. Epiphanies and revelations are happening all around us. Let that good news fill your heart as you hang up your 2022 calendar and turn to this amazing, wonderful first month of the new year!
—Randy Bush