Dear Beloved Siblings,

May you feel God’s Spirit renewing you as this new year of 2021 begins. Are you one who practices setting goals or resolutions at the beginning of a year? For me, the new year has often been a time of practicing the spiritual discipline of examen – an opportunity to reflect on the past year and where I’ve seen God’s Spirit moving, to confess where I’ve missed the mark, and to consider where God is guiding and calling the new year. This year the Indiana-Kentucky Conference of the United Church of Christ (one aspect of community and covenant within our denomination of the United Church of Christ) offered us a list of star words that we can use on a Spirit-led, Spirit-filled journey for the new year. As the magi followed the star on a journey of faith to draw nearer to the Christ child, perhaps you’d like to pick a word or phrase to help you stay focused on drawing near to Jesus during 2021. You can quietly meditate and pray about a word on your own, or you can use the link below to pick a word. After you decide on a word, maybe you’d like to cut out a star and write your word or draw a picture on the star to place somewhere that you’ll see if often. Maybe you’d like to place it in your Bible, on a kitchen table, or on a mirror. You can use it as a way to stay focused on your journey in the faith and love of Jesus. I hope it will remind you that you are a loved child of God. May the stars and words/drawings be of encouragement to us we continue to seek God’s wisdom and guidance in ways to share Jesus’ love with others.

If you’d like to share your word, or send a photo of your word or picture, we can be holding one another’s guiding words in our thoughts and prayers as we journey together as followers of Jesus in a community committed to growing in the faith of Jesus and to sharing his love with others, especially with children and youth in our communities.

https://files.constantcontact.com/8206d75f001/a9006b74-f05b-49e7-bcba-4d26c59808d2.pdf

Please feel free to send your word and/or photo or drawing to pastorsarah.friedens@outlook.com

9When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. 11On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

Matthew 2:9-12