Following the Star 
Pause
The people walking in darkness have seen a great light. On those living in a pitch-dark land, light has dawned.
A child is born to us, a son is given to us, and authority will be on his shoulders. He will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:2, 6
However your day has begun,
enter into these moments
seeking the hope and promise
of the light of God’s love.
Listen
John testified about him, crying out, “This is the one of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is greater than me because he existed before me.’”
From his fullness we have all received grace upon grace; as the Law was given through Moses, so grace and truth came into being through Jesus Christ.
No one has ever seen God. God the only Son, who is at the Father’s side, has made God known.
John 1:15-18
Think
Maybe you’ve done a school KWL activity (Know, Wonder, and Learn). Students complete graphic organizers; the teacher facilitates a conversation before the lesson on what students know, midway on what students wonder, and afterwards on what they’ve learned. (As a teacher, these have never quite worked in my classes — our learning seems to be less neatly linear!)
In our life-education in faithful living, we know there’s no quick pedagogy or nifty chart for us to suddenly succeed.
In today’s passage though, John helps us with what to know — God’s love is eternal. Throughout our biblical narrative, God has continually chosen to be present with humanity, offering grace upon grace through the fullness of time.
And so, we wonder in faith what we have yet to learn… Still aglow from the light of the Christmas season, asking ourselves:
How can we encounter God anew through the grace and truth of Jesus Christ?
How might we better listen to those who cry out in our world to offer hope, seek understanding, and live that grace, refracting the light of God’s love?
Molly Logan
Pray
Gracious and loving God, there is so much I wonder and so much I have yet to learn. I know this. Yet you still want me to help be your light in this world.
While I seek to know your love more fully, help me to then also be your love in the choices I make today.
Amen.
Go
Jesus spoke to the people again, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me won’t walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”
John 8:12
Christ, the Light of the World, is walking with you,
amidst the darkness and the light
and all the nuances
of your heart and your living today.
