Twelve Drummers Drumming

             Today is January 6^th, the twelfth day of Christmas.  As a child my sister and I would love to play a record that we had of the song, “Twelve Days of Christmas”.  We had created dance moves to go along with the song and when we got to the twelfth day, we would be leaping, and dancing and drumming and milking in quick secession.  Growing up in a Protestant faith, I didn’t have any sense of what the twelfth day of Christmas really meant and Christmas ended on December 25^th. Of course, we knew that the wise men came bearing gifts to Jesus, but not in the context of the twelfth day.

               Four Christmases ago, during the first year that I was attending daily mass, I was astonished and overwhelmed by the beauty of the daily masses during the week after Christmas.  That year, the twelfth day, or Epiphany really came alive for me.  This reality has changed how my family and I celebrate Christmas. Some years, we have an Epiphany party or open house to celebrate the twelfth day.  Our Christmas decorations don’t some down until after the Sunday after Epiphany and Christmas songs are played in our home and car until the end of the Catholic Christmas season.

               I’ve learned that Epiphany means the manifestation of God to man.  And that there are actually three events when God manifested himself to man: as the kings arrive to pay homage to Jesus, at the baptism of Christ and during the wedding at Cana when he begins the public journey that will take him to Jerusalem, Golgotha, and the tomb where he will be resurrected.

               As I gaze at the babe in the manger, I wonder what it must have been like to have been those kings whose journey finally ended in this humble setting.  And what did they experience that had them worshiping the King of the Jews on their knees?     For that matter, what did those who watched the baptism of Christ feel as they saw John pour water over his cousin?  We know of the wonder of the apostles who watched Jesus first miracle, perhaps tasted the watch into wine and then believed!

               Then I think of the times that God has made himself manifest to me.  Sometimes in very small ways and a few times that have been that have caused goose bumps to pepper my arms, and my life to change immensely.  In this year of faith, I pray that I will be wise enough and courageous enough to share with others these times when God has been revealed to me.

               So rather than celebrating Twelve Drummers Drumming today.  I wish you a very joyful twelfth day of Christmas.  While most of us are back to our regular routines, I pray that you keep the peace of Christmas with you in the coming week!