Christmas Weekday
There’s something about the new year that fills me with hope and expectation for new beginnings and new life. I love opening a fresh calendar with its blank spaces, much like a clean slate. It seems appropriate that the new calendar year coincides with the liturgical Christmas season in which we celebrate hope and new life in the birth of the Christ child. Today’s readings seem to echo that sense of newness and hope.
In the first letter of John the author reminds us that “we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed.” This speaks to me of the hope of the present as well as our future selves, for the letter goes on to say, “We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” There is more to come. God isn’t finished with us yet. And if we “remain in” this love that God has bestowed on us to be called sons and daughters of God, what new life and new growth can we expect?!
In today’s gospel reading from John we read that John the Baptist did not yet know who Jesus was before the Holy Spirit descended and remained on him like a dove. (Scripture scholars tell us that, unlike the others, John’s gospel does not indicate knowledge of Jesus and John the Baptist being related.) We hear John the Baptist say “I did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘On whomever you see the Spirit come down and remain, he is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’” It was the Spirit’s presence that revealed Jesus’ identity as the Son of God.
We, too, since our baptism, have been named sons and daughters of God. In this season of new birth, new life, new beginnings, how are we being called to live out that knowledge and that hope? How does this knowledge impact my identity, my choices, my day to day interactions with others?
How will we fill those blank spaces on the calendar this year as daughters and sons of God, as brothers and sisters of Jesus?
~Eileen Miller