A Facebook post making the rounds consists of a row of wine bottles in a store with a sign above them that says, “Water.” The comment below the photo reads: “Jesus was here.” Changing water into wine is the first “sign” mentioned in John’s gospel and a favorite miracle of many Christians. But the keyword in that miracle is not “wine” but “change.”

The place where John the Baptist lived, conducted his ministry, and baptized Jesus is no idyllic respite. Called, then and now, Bethany Beyond the Jordan, on the Jordan side of the Jordan River, it’s a hot, dusty plain under unrelenting sun, a shelterless wilderness of tangled reeds and rock, swarming with biting flies.

A few years ago, a parishioner shared an Epiphany reflection with our community. She didn’t talk about the Magi and their gifts. She didn’t reflect on the star they followed. Instead, she invited us when the opportunity arose to watch how a mother holds her newborn child.

Christmas brings a slew of photo cards from friends and relatives looking clean and shiny and happy. But the glistening family portraits don’t capture the full story of what each family has been through or what lies ahead.

We work so hard at Christmas. We spend time and money to make it beautiful, enjoyable, tasty and memorable, so it’s easy to think of it as something we do rather than something God does for us.

My mother makes the best eggs. Fried eggs, scrambled eggs, omelets, quiche. I don’t know how she does it. There’s no secret ingredient. I’ve watched her make eggs countless times, studied her technique, but I can’t replicate it. It’s a mystery.

The prophets Baruch and Isaiah tell us that the world will soon be able to leave behind the sinfulness that isolates us and leaves us in mourning, to instead rejoice in the presence of the Messiah being in our midst and living among us. This will fill us with joy.

As we start this first day of Advent, we remember that we go forth not alone but with our faith community. In this season of hope, we can trust that together we will find strength and encouragement for whatever adventures and challenges lie ahead.

Baseball legend Yogi Berra, who died at the age of 90 after a long and storied career, was revered for his wisdom-filled malapropisms as much as his baseball prowess. Among his more memorable observations: “If you don’t know where you’re going, you might wind up someplace else.”

The point of the biblical stories that lead us into Advent is to bolster our faith when we face threats to our faith. The end-time texts were thought to have been written much earlier by holy persons who had looked into the future—into our time—and seen not only our danger and oppression, but also that we would triumph in the end.