This is my seventh year reflecting on an Epiphany Star Word as a Spiritual Practice to move closer to God.
Here’s my recap 2019 through 2025.
Want a word? Message me!
2023 Star Word: Tranquility/Silence ✨ My first reaction to this word was “Yay!” I love these words. Yet it led me on a journey of not tranquility and silence on the outside circumstances of my life, but my inner tranquility, peace and calm. It’s kind of funny because I’ve always considered myself a calm and peaceful person on the outside yet on the inside I have a million things going on in my head and a million feelings. I am like the duck on the pond who looks really content and chill but is paddling like crazy beneath the surface. This word helped me to stop paddling. To realize I can glide ~ to realize that I don’t have to prove my worth through work and achievement.
2024 Star Word: Oneness ✨ This word was and is exceedingly powerful for me. I’ve always felt a deep connection to literally everything, but I have always had difficulty articulating it. I love nature, trees, plants, animals, rocks, sky, earth and mountain because I feel we are created from the same stuff. And we are full of energy/Spirit that connects us all. I happened upon the writings of Stephen Charleston in 2024, a native American, and also a former bishop in Alaska. He has the ability speak to this “oneness” because of his native upbringing and connect it to Christianity. He does this in a way that I’ve never heard, but always known. It is literally our theology. Our communion liturgy says this and it’s one of my favorite parts of the liturgy: “ God, make us one with Christ, one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world.” This is reminding us that we are already ONE. I love this word it is the epitome of who I want to be: a child of God who sees, knows, can articulate and share the fact that we are all eternally connected.
2025 Star Word: Joy ✨ I just received this word so about all I can say about it is my initial reaction. And my initial reaction was not joy. Which sounds strange because it is a beautiful word and a beautiful characteristic of God and I can even say at some level is foundational in my life. Yet to show Joy on the daily seems an impossible task. I can say that I shared with you all that it felt heavy to receive this word. Joy has a lot of faces. And the one we don’t talk about which I think dominates most of us is “quiet joy.” It’s not the jump up and down, all is wonderful happy emotion we are taught as kids. It’s more subdued than that because it’s present even in times of sorrow and grief And through all of our days…
Following Sundays sermon, a parishioner came to me and said this, “I hope you know that you bring me joy. Ever since you began, and I first started coming here, your calm voice and your wisdom have always brought me joy. And I would be sad if you didn’t know that.” This begins my journey with the word I didn’t think I wanted.
Where will your journey go?
Let’s keep asking ourselves throughout the year: what might God be trying to reveal to you through your word?
Original Post
As I prepare for giving out and receiving my own Star Word for 2023. I am looking back at past words and how they really did help me see God. That’s the job of a Star Word after all. Have you ever received one?
Star Words come we celebrate Epiphany in the church. Epiphany is all about the manifestation of God. Here is a glimpse of past words I was given and God at work for me. If you received a Star Word in the past, before you receive a new one, I invite you to look back…
2019: Tenderness. My first experience with Star Words was part of a seminary class on United Methodist Polity. This was the year, because of this class and professor, that I switched from Deacon track to Elder and decided on pursuing an M. Div. What a hard road this was to say yes to, but as firm as God was about this path – the tenderness of God showed up all over my life as doors, windows and whole new highways were paved for me to walk upon.
2020: Acceptance. I can’t even begin to say how mad I was when I got this word in 2020. No, I wanted a new word. Acceptance???? What? But this WAS the perfect 2020 word with so much in life and circumstance that I could do nothing about. God asked me to accept and trust that there was a plan and it would be okay. (Altho, ugly and difficult…it was okay.)
2021: Beauty. Through covid and isolation I spent more time outside in 2021 than any other year. I planted a garden. I walked everyday. Talked to my trees daily in Bluffton and saw God in the beauty of the country sunsets and muddy lowlands of Ohio. Beauty, God’s beauty, really does heal the world, well, it healed me.
2022: Connection. I have a love/hate relationship with this word. I love it and crave it, yet I run from connection at times too. God showed me as I journeyed with this word that, as much as I would love to live in a world where all I needed was connection to God….that isn’t how this life of faith works. Connection and God is very much found horizontally too within the people around us. Fellowship is the key to spiritual growth. This includes letting yourself be loved others. Thank you, God, 2022, and this word for helping me see that.
Thank you, God for using something as simple as a word written on a piece of paper to help me to – like the Magi of so long ago – see you more, follow you, in turn know you and worship you always.
“And on their way to Bethlehem, the same star they had seen in the East suddenly reappeared! Amazed, they watched as it went ahead of them and stopped directly over the place where the child was.”
Matthew 2:9 TPT
Want your own star word in celebration of Epiphany 2023? If you aren’t near my churches in Ottawa, Ohio simply send me an email request and I will pick out and photograph a star word just for you.
Email: umcpastormarcella@gmail.com.
See you in church friends!
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