Ordinary Time

Pause

Christ is the light of the world — the one who sees us and helps us to see with the eyes of faith. In the season of Epiphany, we ponder who Christ is and remember his ministry among the people of Israel, as well as the outcasts and foreigners.

And we remember that God has called each of us to bear Christ’s light in the world.

So what is God calling you to see in your own life? Or to see in the lives of those around you? How might others know and see God in you this week?

Come. Come and see.

Listen

You are the one who created my innermost parts; you knit me together while I was still in my mother’s womb. I give thanks to you that I was marvelously set apart. Your works are wonderful—I know that very well. My bones weren’t hidden from you when I was being put together in a secret place, when I was being woven together in the deep parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my embryo, and on your scroll every day was written that was being formed for me, before any one of them had yet happened. God, your plans are incomprehensible to me! Their total number is countless! If I tried to count them—they outnumber grains of sand! If I came to the very end—I’d still be with you.

Psalm 139:13-18

Think

At school, I remember feeling like I didn’t fit in with other girls. I wasn’t thin and didn’t feel pretty. I didn’t wear the latest fashions. I was clumsy and awkward. I felt like everyone besides me had something going for them.

With television commercials, magazines, movies, and music telling us what we should look like and how we should act, it’s easy to feel like we’re not measuring up. It’s easy for us to see ourselves as not pretty, handsome, smart, or even worthy of others’ love and respect.

But the psalmist reminds us that God is the one who lovingly creates and forms us: “You knit me together while I was still in my mother’s womb. I give thanks to you that I was marvelously set apart. Your works are wonderful — I know that very well.”

You have been knit together, created from the love of God, and set apart as a wonderful creation to participate in God’s plans. This is how God sees you. How can you remember this and help others to know this today?

Annabelle Peake Markey

Pray

Wondrous God, you created me with love and great care, calling your creation “very good.” Remind me that I am a marvelous creation and that I am your beloved child, especially when I don’t feel like I’m fitting in. May I honor and see others as beloved children of God, wonderfully made in your image. Amen.

Go

Go, seen in the light of Christ.

Go, surrounded by the light of Christ.

Go, bearing the light of Christ to the world.

Go, reflecting the light of Christ to those in need.

Go, seeing the light of Christ shining forth from others.