Prayer for Your Home

 

January 6 is known as the Feast of the Epiphany.  This ends the Twelve Days of Christmas and when the church celebrates the arrival of the Wise Ones to worship Jesus.  You can find the story in Matthew 2, how the Wise Ones travel a great distance following a star, note that we are not told exactly how many were in this caravan of people.  Many believe the Wise Ones started their journey on the day of Jesus birth, when they saw the star.  Because there was no Delta Airlines to hop on, it might have taken a long time to reach Jesus.  Some suggest Jesus may have been 2 years old before the Wise Ones finally knocked on the door of his house bringing gifts.  Imagine Mary and Joseph surprise when they open the door and find these people they have never met before, weary and worn out from travel.  Perhaps they remembered their own exhaustion before Christ’s birth.  The Wise Ones bring gifts of great value that the family could have sold to help put food on the table. 

On Epiphany, there is an ancient practice of blessing your own, just as the Wise Ones blessed Jesus’ abode.  Here is a wonderful prayer from Jan Richardson.

 

The Year as a House: A Blessing

Think of the year as a house: door flung wide in welcome,
threshold swept and waiting, a graced spaciousness
opening and offering itself to you.

Let it be blessed in every room.
Let it be hallowed in every corner.
Let every nook be a refuge
and every object set to holy use.

Let it be here that safety will rest.
Let it be here that health will make its home.
Let it be here that peace will show its face.
Let it be here that love will find its way.

Here let the weary come
let the aching come
let the lost come
let the sorrowing come.

Here let them find their rest
and let them find their soothing
and let them find their place
and let them find their delight.

And may it be in this house of a year
that the seasons will spin in beauty,
and may it be in these turning days
that time will spiral with joy.
And may it be that its rooms will fill
with ordinary grace
and light spill from every window
to welcome the stranger home.

Wherever you make your home, may it be blessed, and may you

enter this Epiphany and the coming year in peace.

Amen.

Today, I invite you to go room to room in your home offering prayers of thanksgiving.  For the bedroom where you rest, for the warmth of the shower, the food in the refrigerator and the kitchen table soaked with stories.  For the living room where you can sit in your favorite chair ~ and say a prayer for your favorite chair.  Wander around your house blessing the walls and wood work and spaces as a physical place where you might encounter God in the house call 2024.  Amen.