Wednesday, January 14, 2026

Musings at St. Andrew's
Andrew Hight | Family Ministries Coordinator

January has always felt like an opportunity for change and starting fresh. Some of you may have heard the phrase “New Year, New Me” before - an idea that on January 1 you have the chance to be better and do better. Of course, we know that if you want to make a change in your life, it can really happen at any time, but I do find comfort in the idea of a new year inviting new things. What do you want to change or accomplish in 2026?

December at St. Andrew’s has always been a bit of a blur for me. Between helping prepare content for special services like the choir cantata, preparing lesson material for the kids, prepping for the Christmas Eve service - which now involves ceramic making - and everything else that comes up, by the time December 24 arrives there is almost a feeling of wanting it just to be over. Of course, Christmas is the most special time of year, and I don’t ultimately feel that way once the service begins.

But the reality, at least for me, is that working in a church where the entire month of December is Christmas - focused can make celebrating Christmas personally a bit more difficult. I think that’s why I enjoy the turning of the year so much - it’s a literal fresh slate in both my personal life and the life of the church. We enter the short church season known as Epiphany, a time when we explore the visit of the wise men, the baptism of Jesus, and his early teachings and miracles. It’s a season for reflecting on those “aha” moments of understanding what it means that Jesus is God’s child made flesh - the truth we sing about on Christmas Eve.

For the kids this month, they continue moving through the stories of the Bible in chronological order. At Christmas, of course, we crossed into the Gospels with the story of Jesus’ birth. This past Sunday, we talked about and learned the story of Jesus as a twelve-year-old teaching in the temple. One of the funniest parts of the story is that Mary and Joseph don’t even realize Jesus is missing on their journey home from Jerusalem until they are about halfway back - and once they return to the city, it takes them three whole days to find him. When Jesus is finally located, he isn’t worried at all. He simply says that he was never lost, but was in his Father’s house.

And I think that’s where this story quietly meets us and the kids today. Each Sunday when they head upstairs, they too are in their Father’s house: asking questions, listening, wondering, and growing. They may not always realize it in the moment, and neither do we when Sunday seems chaotic and it feels like the lesson did not stick, but week by week their faith is being shaped through stories, conversations, and shared time together. Just like Jesus in the temple, they are learning what it means to belong here.

In the midst of a new year, new questions, and new beginnings, it is a gift to remember that this is a safe space for them: a space to discover who God is surrounded by love.