Celebrating Epiphany



 A Little Background
Epiphany commemorates the day that the wise men came to worship Jesus, bringing with them gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Contrary to traditional belief, a close look a Matthew Chapter 2 will show that the wise men were not a part of the nativity scene with the shepherds and the newly born Babe. With that being the case, there was some time between His Birth and their visit. There are many other details about the narrative of His Birth that many believe, but are not accurate according to the Scriptures, such as how many wise men there were. The Scriptures do not indicate how many, but somehow we are all stuck on the number three! It is important to decipher between the Word of God and man-made traditions and add ons.

With that being said, Epiphany is not a God-ordained celebration or Holy Day that must be kept. You may say, "Well, Stacie, just why would you celebrate it then?" My answer: simply to recall the order of events (history) and to thank God for His goodness. We really love Bible history around here and to speak of the wise men's worship of our Lord on a day other than our celebration of His Birth drives the point home to my children that the two were separate events.***

We also realize that, according to the Scriptures, God led these men of foreign origin (non-Jewish) to the Messiah. This is a huge detail because it is the manifestation of Jesus to the Gentiles so they could worship Him as King. Praise God, Jesus is for everyone!!



How We Celebrated
(Although Epiphany is traditionally celebrated on Jan. 6th, we celebrated a day early.)
  • Read Matthew Chapter 2 as part of regular Bible time.
  • Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh Assignment: my oldest 3 were each given one of the gifts to research and they had to present their findings to the family at lunch time.
Homeschool Assignment
  • Played Find the Cross: I hid a small cross (representing our King) somewhere in the house and the kids had to search for it. This was just a fun way to remember that the wise men set out to search for Jesus. Whoever was first to find the cross got first dibs at a sweet treat and would be the one to hang up our special prayer, described below. (According to Matthew 2, the star they had seen the East was not always visible, hence the reason they ask in vs. 2 where Jesus is since they had seen His star in the East. After their visit with Herod, the star reappears, as told in vs. 9 guiding them to Christ.)
My handsome number 5 was the first to find the cross. He was so excited!

A little background on this cross: A very dear friend of mine gave this to me when we were in college. Her father had given her a few of these little crosses to hand out to her friends, to encourage us in our faith and in prayer, to remain steadfast in the Lord. Her sweet father has since gone on to be in the Presence of the Lord, but his small gesture of encouragement has stayed with me over the years.
To my dear friend: Thank you, sis; I love you!
  • House Blessing: We welcomed the Prince of Peace into our home and hearts and lives, praying for His peace in our home and peace for all those who may come to visit this year. We prayed that our home would be a place Christ would be pleased to dwell in. And finally, we hung up a little sign (traditional to Epiphany celebrations) over the doorway of our front door.
Placed above our front door


And, that was that. . . . Well, we played "Find the Cross" two more times and had a few more pieces of candy. Then, that was that!

Resources
Of course there's tons of information on the internet. And as always, when doing internet searches, you take some and you leave some. As Christians we should seek to honor God with any tradition we keep in our homes, so those things that I thought were irrelevant or contrary to Scripture, I left out. Some of the things in our celebration, I made up.

One book that I refer to for information is Celebrating the Christian Year by Martha Zimmerman. Although I do not agree with or follow everything in the book, it is a handy go-to resource for navigating some of the Christian holidays and understanding their history and origins.

Have you ever celebrated Epiphany in your home or church? What family traditions do you keep this time of year?

***Side note: we do not believe that December 25th is the precise day of the Birth of our Lord, 
nor do we believe that January 6th is the precise day the wise men went to worship Him. 
While these may be days our family chooses to commemorate these events, 
we do not believe that it is mandatory or required of God for every believer to do so. 
I hope to post more (one day) on our family's journey in the way we celebrate 
and some changes that we are (slowly) making.


Comments

  1. Aaw...the cross! You're welcome. I love you too, sis!!! Enjoyed your post!

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