Happy New Year, Christ Church!

I hope you had a great time celebrating our Lord’s birth and the new year. We certainly did – although it was not without its challenges. We traveled to Asheville to visit family, and it was a good time. But while there, I picked up a bug. When we got back, our daughter got sick and retained a fever for three days. I’ve fully recovered and she’s on the mend, but the experience had me reflect on some things.

It’s always difficult when your child is ill. Seeing them miserable tugs on a parent’s heart strings like little else can. As we experienced this over the last few days, I thought about the heart of God. His concern, love and care for us is deeper even than that of a loving parent to a child. His Word tells us as much in a number of places, but I want to share with you a passage from Isaiah 49:

Can a mother forget the baby at her breast

and have no compassion on the child she has borne?

Though she may forget,

I will not forget you!

See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;

This is the kind of love that God has for his sons and daughters! And as those who are baptized believers, that is what we are – the children of God. As we approach the first Sunday after Epiphany, take some time to prepare your hearts to receive and experience the affirmation of God the Father to Jesus at his baptism when he said: “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased." Because as those who are in Christ, this is his declaration to us as well!

Blessings,
Fr. Darin+

Priest-in-charge