A Liminal Beginning

There is a word many people rarely use yet generally understand: liminal—a threshold space. Not the room we left behind and not yet the room we are entering. A doorway. A pause. A moment when we can feel life shifting under our feet even if we cannot name what is changing.

New Year’s Day is one of those moments. So is the Octave of Christmas. The decorations may still be glowing, but daily life is already beginning to stir. Children return to school soon. Work resumes. Resolutions appear, fade, or change. Many who come to church today step into this hour carrying both hope and fatigue. And right in the middle of that threshold moment, the Church gives us a single word to begin the year: blessing.

In today’s Gospel Lesson, shepherds come to Bethlehem and find a child whose birth has redefined the world. Mary treasures every word. Eight days later, the child is given a name—Jesus, “God saves”—and with that naming, God’s blessing…