I was a full-grown adult before I understood how the \u201ctwelve days of Christmas\u201d worked. The jolly little song proved familiar enough\u2013 \u201cOn the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me\u2026\u201d\u2013though the partridge and pear tree always perplexed as gift choices. To each his own, I suppose. But I think for a long time, I assumed that the song must refer to a strange unit within the Advent calendar\u2013perhaps the twelve days leading up to Christmas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Years later, I learned more about Epiphany, celebrated on the 6th of January to commemorate the magi who traveled from afar to worship Jesus. At some point, it clicked for me that the \u201ctwelve days of Christmas\u201d might in fact designate the celebration of Christmas, extending from Christ\u2019s birth through his revelation to the wider world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More important than new insight on this holiday song and numbering convention was understanding in greater depth what Epiphany represents for us. The magi, or \u201cwise men,\u201d did not fully grasp who they were traveling to honor and worship. They walked in faith, trusting that the brilliant star guiding them proffered a signal flare of hope, a beacon of something brighter that they couldn\u2019t yet name but whose meaning and significance they profoundly sensed. And they were right. Christ\u2019s birth offered grace for all, not only in the tightly-knit Jewish communities claiming Mary, Joseph, and their kin, and not even just in the Roman world that extended imperially around and beyond them. This grace overflowed tribal identities, political borders, and a daunting geography traversed by small boats and camels. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What the magi followed and sought proved bigger and brighter\u2026and ultimately impossible to ignore. So they traveled earnestly, bringing offerings considered precious and valuable from their corner of the world. These gifts might pale in comparison to the enormity of a new king, or a new world order, or whatever one might imagine a star-heralded birth to signal, but the gifts represented what was immeasurably precious to the givers. And that was what mattered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ll confess that I don\u2019t always remember to fully mark Epiphany beyond its celebration liturgically at the appropriate Sunday service. I have good intentions, but sometimes the day itself passes me by amid the unavoidable busyness of the new year. By the Twelfth Day of Christmas, I\u2019m often already entrenched along the narrow road of a highly scheduled life, but I believe that\u2019s all the more reason to recall a different calendar and the star that summons even when concealed behind the bright business of the day. Epiphany calls us to walk our paths under the light of grace, and it does so even as we turn here at Valpo toward a new semester and its fullness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What star beckons us? What signal flare of hope persists tenaciously (even if a lake-effect snow squall does<\/em> roar in during our first hour of spring semester classes)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n What unearned grace covers us all, freeing us to pursue education, formation, and service to neighbor and world?<\/p>\n\n\n\n What treasured gifts do each of us carry along our common way?<\/p>\n\n\n\n As we begin the next stage of our journey together in this new semester, I offer Jan Richardson\u2019s epiphany poem\u2013a gift for the road and a small reminder of that beckoning star.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A Blessing for Epiphany<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n If you could see Call it There is nothing to be faithful to to keep an open eye There are vows Keep them, break them, to offer the gift \u2013 Dr. Anna Stewart <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I was a full-grown adult before I understood how the \u201ctwelve days of Christmas\u201d worked. The jolly little song proved familiar enough\u2013 \u201cOn the twelfth day of Christmas my true […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":82,"featured_media":12141,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[14,16,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-csl-newsletter-devotionals","category-anna-stewart","category-ilas-devotionals-and-reflections"],"acf":[],"author_meta":{"display_name":"Elizabeth Searle","author_link":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/author\/esearle1\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2026\/01\/Newsletter-Devotional-Graphics-2025-2026-3-300x169.webp","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["CSL Newsletter Devotionals<\/a>","Anna Stewart<\/a>","ILAS Devotionals and Reflections<\/a>"],"unlinked":["CSL Newsletter Devotionals<\/span>","Anna Stewart<\/span>","ILAS Devotionals and Reflections<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 10 months ago","modified":"Updated 6 months ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on January 14, 2026","modified":"Updated on May 22, 2026"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on January 14, 2026 6:21 pm","modified":"Updated on May 22, 2026 7:56 pm"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/82"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12132"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12143,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12132\/revisions\/12143"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
the journey whole
you might never
undertake it;
might never dare
the first step
that propels you
from the place
you have known
toward the place
you know not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
one of the mercies
of the road:
that we see it
only by stages
as it opens
before us,
as it comes into
our keeping
step by
single step.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
for it
but to go
and by our going
take the vows
the pilgrim takes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
the next step;
to rely on more
than the map;
to heed the signposts
of intuition and dream;
to follow the star
that only you
will recognize;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
for the wonders that
attend the path;
to press on
beyond distractions
beyond fatigue
beyond what would
tempt you
from the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
that only you
will know;
the secret promises
for your particular path
and the new ones
you will need to make
when the road
is revealed
by turns
you could not
have foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
make them again:
each promise becomes
part of the path;
each choice creates
the road
that will take you
to the place
where at last
you will kneel<\/p>\n\n\n\n
most needed\u2014
the gift that only you
can give\u2014
before turning to go
home by
another way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Director, Institute for Leadership and Service<\/p>\n\n\n\n