It’s Epiphany!

Just a tiny post because I can’t ignore the fact that, in the church calendar, today is Epiphany!

That means that today commemorates the day that the Wisemen arrived before wee Jesus with their gold, frankincense and myrrh. Or, as I’ve heard it said, “God, Frankinstein and Murray.” Whoever Murray was.

Notice I did not say “baby” Jesus. We think that they actually arrived 2 years later, when Jesus wasn’t at the stable anymore. Though, to be sure, we continue to enjoy the tableau of those cute small boys in their father’s bathrobes in the traditional Christmas pageant!

Pageant kiddos. Wisemen included!

Now why this day is called “epiphany” and how it connects to having an epiphany, I do not know exactly. Perhaps it dawned on the Magi in an epiphonous moment (I think I made that word up. My spell-checker sure thinks I did.) that the wee baby was, indeed, God incarnate. Though it seems as if they must have suspected that when they set out on their trip. I know that I’d want to be pretty sure of something if embarking on a two-year (or longer) journey to find it.

My youngest...slightly distracted during the program.

I am try to understand, exactly, the connection of “epiphany” as we normally use it, and the “epiphany” of the wise men. I do know that “epiphany”, according to Webster’s, means “a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something.” I also know that another meaning Webster’s gives is that epiphany “commemorates the manifestation of Christ to the gentiles in the persons of the Magi” (the wisemen).

So…to combine those two meanings, the wisemen received insight into God when they met Him in the person of His son, Jesus, a two-year old boy living with his human parents somewhere in the Middle East. They perceived Jesus to be, in essence, God. They had an epiphany – a flash of insight – when they saw him – or, perhaps, finally meeting him was the apex of an epiphany that had been two or more years in the making.

They met Him and their lives were changed. Just as our lives can be changed by Him today.

I don’t know that any of my epiphanies are that important. That life-changing. That world-changing. Actually, I KNOW they aren’t! But I do know that I’m loving writing about them, loving your responses and the connections being made with you all every Tuesday.

Thanks for following my epiphanies! May you be inspired by The Epiphany today.

Yes, it is a fine day for an epiphany!

PS – I was inspired by Dick Staub’s blog when writing this. http://dickstaub.com/staublog/epiphany-pay-attention-be-astonished-tell-about-it-use-words-only-if-necessary/

The whole gang!