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Epiphany is about light breaking into darkness. The Magi were not insiders, they were not priests or
kings of Israel — they were outsiders, foreigners, astrologers. And yet they were the ones who saw the
star and followed it.

That is how God works: showing up in places we do not expect, through people we do not expect. Rev.
Nadia Bolz-Weber once said: “Sometimes the fact that there is nothing about you that makes you the
right person to do something is exactly what God is looking for.”

That is the truth. God does not wait for us to be perfect, polished, or respectable. God shows up in the
mess, in the brokenness, in the places where we feel like we have already failed.

Paul put it this way: “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the
weak things of the world to shame the strong.” (1 Corinthians 1:27) So, if you feel like you are not the
right person, congratulations — you are exactly the kind of person God loves to work with.

Epiphany is about revelation. About God saying: “I am here. I am with you. Even here.” Nadia reminds
us: “God simply keeps reaching down into the dirt of humanity and resurrecting us from the graves we
dig for ourselves and God keeps loving us back to life over and over.”

One of the most powerful examples of Jesus’ balance of truth and grace — He acknowledges sin, but
responds with compassion and hope. John 8:1–11 tells the story of a woman caught in adultery,
brought before Jesus by the Pharisees to test Him.

Instead of condemning her, Jesus challenges the accusers: “Let him who is without sin cast the first
stone.” One by one, they leave, and Jesus tells the woman, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and sin no
more.”

That is not a pretty story and it is not neat. But it is real raw forgiveness. God does not flinch at the dirt,
the shame, the regret. God climbs right into it with us and says: You are mine. You are loved. You are
not forgotten. The Gospel of John says: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not
overcome it.” (John 1:5)

That is Epiphany. Light in the dark. Hope in the hopeless. God showing up where nobody thought God
would. So, here is the good news: You do not have to be the “right” person. You do not have to have it
all together. You do not have to pretend. God’s light is for you, right now, right here. And nothing —
not walls, not bars, not shame, not regret — can stop it.

Bobbi Shaffer
Sylvania