In 2016, I visited Washington, DC for the first time, but I didn’t go on any tours. After attending the NALC Life Conference at Trinity Lutheran Church in nearby Warrenton, VA, I had the opportunity to participate in the March for Life with fellow Lutherans from across the country.

Oh! the mysteries that lie before us. Every day of this new year presents itself as an opportunity to fear, love and trust God. Yet for many, these days will be frightening because they are unknown and mysterious. What difficulties, what tragedies and horrors, may await us? Daniel reminds us, “But there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries.”

The Church entered into the liturgical season of Epiphany yesterday. Epiphany is the Church’s response to God’s incarnate light, the Emmanuel, who is revealed as a babe, wrapped in swaddling clothes and nestled in the arms of his mother. In the truest sense of the revelatory characteristic of an epiphany, the world experienced a great change giving shape to Mary’s magnificent hymn of praise in our minds and hearts: kings kneel, shepherds stand, the realm of heaven descends, and a manger becomes the throne of the Son of God.

Who were these “wise men” anyhow? The Greek word is magi, from which we get the words “magic” and “magician.” However, in the ancient world that had a different meaning from what we understand today. The magi were religious leaders and teachers who studied that ancient form of religion we call astrology.

God is Father to the undeserving. We do not earn His love; He freely gives it to us and does so bountifully and at surprising times. If we are careful to note, every minute is a surprise. For He loves us in every moment, but there is not even one of those moments when we deserve His great love.

When you read these verses, you may be amazed that Isaiah actually saw the Lord God seated upon His throne, high and lifted up (Isaiah 6:1). You may also wonder about what the seraphim really looked like, as they sang God’s praises (Isaiah 6:2-3). You might even feel trepidation at God’s power when “the foundations of the thresholds shook” (Isaiah 6:4). Indeed, the whole scene testifies to the unlimited power of God. But it also testifies to the mortality of man.

The mother and brothers of Jesus came looking for Him but they couldn’t get to Him because of the crowd of people in the house where He was speaking. Jesus was in Capernaum at the time, where He had been conducting His preaching and teaching ministry at various synagogues. When the message was passed on to Jesus that His mother and siblings were asking for Him, He said to all: “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it.”

You’ve all seen it. The misguided pro-life zealot who blew up the abortion clinic. The “anti-abortion extremist” who shot and killed the doctor who performs abortions. The members of the church blocking funeral processions for members of the armed forces because the military allows homosexual men and women to serve. The rancorous protests and vicious rhetoric when “physician-assisted suicide” is debated.