By Heather Melton, (she/her) UTO Staff Officer

One of my favorite Christmas albums is the recording of the concert held in New York in 1988 with Peter, Paul, and Mary with the New York Choral Society. One of my favorite songs is called “The Magi (The Heart of Man’s A Palace).” While researching this a bit more for this article, I learned the song is based on the poem “The Journey of the Magi” by T.S. Eliot. A few years ago, I was driving back from the store one night when this song came up on my playlist, and I remember feeling like I heard the words for the first time. Maybe it was because it was cold and dark out, or because sometimes I really feel a longing for God’s presence among us in what can feel like a fairly chaotic world, but the chorus, and the line about our fingerprints in particular, touched my heart:

The wise men spoke of peace on earth, of harmony and struggle
know you now a cycle’s gone and new one is revealed
In the weaving of your fingers is the whisper of a love that’s born again
In the weaving of your fingers is a promise that was made that never ends

This year our grant focus is about bridging the divide. While talking with potential applicants and reading their draft applications, I have been struck by the swirl of hopefulness amid divisions in our world. I love reading the ways that people are figuring out how to do something impactful. (I’m excited for you to hear some of those stories later this year.) The time between Christmas Day and Epiphany goes so quickly. In our modern times, the space between is filled with New Year’s celebrations, so we might miss the liturgical holidays hidden in those 12 days, like Holy Innocents. The promise of the Incarnation, for me anyway, is one of hope…hope that the world can and should be better than it is, but the biblical stories that unfold between the birth of Jesus and the Magi making it to see him, remind us that Jesus was born into a broken and hurting world. The Magi, who go home by a different road to protect Jesus, remind us that we have a part to play in making that hope a reality. Imprinted on our fingers is a promise from God of a love so big and so grand, but that promise of love is also imprinted on the fingers of each person we meet…regardless of if we agree with them, understand them, or welcome them. The promise that I am loved is the promise that we all are loved, and ours is the work of sharing that love with others. 

This Epiphany, I hope you will remember, in the midst of whatever you are going through, that you are loved. That we are all loved. We are all going through our own struggles, but we don’t have to go through them alone. There were three wisemen, disciples sent out in twos, and a community of love and faith that surrounded the early church and its apostles to set for us an example of how we need one another and our unique gifts to build up a world of peace. I am grateful for the example of the Magi this Epiphany season, and for the promise of hope and the reminder of love woven into all of our fingertips.