Opinion

I just spent the morning viewing biographies of the Plantagenet kings (until their replacement by the Tudors). That’s what cancer patients do, I suppose, while they live a hermit’s lifestyle awaiting a vaccination against the virus. In this case I learned an important lesson from British history. I learned that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

“And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him...” (Matthew 2:9-11) A week from today, on January 6, the season of Epiphany begins, signaling the end of the Christmas season on the Christian Church calendar. In most Lutheran churches the liturgical color will change from white to green; Epiphany’s message of Christ’s revelation to the Gentiles along with the season’s traditional emphasis on extending Christ’s kingdom through missions, calls for the use of green—the color symbolic of growth. Epiphany is from a Greek word, meaning to “reveal”

Gov. Greg Abbott and other Texas leaders are rolling up their sleeves to get the COVID-19 vaccine and to encourage the public to follow suit.