Epiphany Stars Still Guiding Us

Last week I led worship service.  As the late service ended, I stood at the back at the door to shake hands of departing parishioners. 

One woman said to me, "I still have those things you handed out one of the last times you were in charge."  At first I had no idea what she meant, and she said, "Those things with the special word or phrase on them."

I said, "Do you mean the Epiphany stars?"

She did; I wrote about it in this blog post back when I led the Epiphany service.  I wrote a word or a phrase on a star, created a bag of stars, and we passed the bag around letting people pull a star out of the bag.  The idea is that the star will guide us through the year.

I asked the woman what word was on the star.  She said, "Say no."

I said, "And have you been saying no?"

She said no.  Happily, I didn't see the humor in that, so I didn't laugh; she was serious, after all.

I said, "Well you still have half a year."

That sent me back to my two words:  in the practice session, I pulled out "Listen."  During the worship service, I pulled out "Say yes."

How have I been doing?  I've been trying.

I was glad to have had that encounter with the parishioner.  For one thing, I'm glad that she still remembered the experience, half a year later.  And I'm glad that she reminded me of my own stars.  I have been aware of my tendency to say no much too quickly, but often, when I change my mind to say yes, I'm glad.  And like everyone else, my attention span fragments in many directions these days.  It's good to be reminded of the need to be present and listen.