I love the first month of the new year, so full of possibilities! Yes, technically we’ve just moved from one calendar year to another, and we’re still in the Northern Hemisphere’s winter season for months to come, and spring might feel like a more natural season for a fresh start.

Still, the transition period from one year to the next can offer a milestone, an opportunity to reflect on the past to envision the future. In our lightning speed culture, with most of us endlessly sprinting to keep up with mercurial changes in technology, trends, politics and weather, we can find ourselves breathless, confused and unmoored from our deepest, soul-fulfilling values. We need occasions to pause and take stock. If we allow ourselves the opportunity to slow down, recognize and integrate what we’ve learned from past experiences, we can move toward future hopes with greater clarity and intentionality.

In Christian tradition, the season of Epiphany is a time of memory and hope. It starts with the Feast of Epiphany on Jan. 6, the completion of the 12 Days of Christmas, which celebrates Matthew’s story of the magi who traveled long distances to meet the king whose birth they’d read in the stars. The long pilgrimage of these wise ones led them to a surprising encounter with the divine in an unexpected place: the child Jesus, who seemed insignificant in the power calculus of his time, yet whose life, death and resurrection continue to impact the world more than 2,000 years later.

The story reminds us that God shows up in surprising encounters, sudden insights and serendipitous guidance. Because God comes to us in unexpected ways, we are invited to cultivate a new kind of vision. We are called to look for epiphanies of all kinds, small or large moments when we recognize the divine presence, purpose and power in our midst.

Our personal and collective memories inform this future vision. Because God has fulfilled past promises in Jesus, we can trust God to continue doing so. Now it is our job to pay attention, recognize and choose to participate with the manifestation of God’s promises in our individual and collective lives.

The spiritual practice of pausing to reflect on the past and imagine the future, whether we do it at the new year or any other seasonal transition, can help. Making it a habit, we develop the capacity to recognize the extraordinary in the ordinary. We learn to see, experience and appreciate the multilayered richness of life itself.

Epiphanies are constantly occurring in our daily lives. When we give greater attention to epiphanies, each unfolding minute and hour offers the possibility of a fresh start. How will you pause to reflect on the past so that you can recognize the divine presence available to you in every future moment of your life?

May your new year be blessed with memory, trust and readiness for God’s promises of hope, peace, love and joy to be fulfilled in you.

The spiritual practice of pausing to reflect on the past and imagine the future, whether we do it at the new year or any other seasonal transition, can help. Making it a habit, we develop the capacity to recognize the extraordinary in the ordinary.