Today is Epiphany. The twelfth day of Christmas, Epiphany commemorates the arrival of the wise men to visit the infant Jesus. Theologically, Epiphany conveys the revelation of Christ to the whole world–from the ends of the earth the presence of God in Christ is revealed.
In common parlance we refer to epiphanies as “aha” moments. Suddenly we come to know a new reality through no effort of our own. We see. We know.
On Christmas Eve my husband fell on his elbow in a street near our house and broke it in several places. After surgery he was given narcotic painkillers to numb the ache. His reaction to the medication was alarming to me. He became someone I did not recognize.
This experience made me viscerally aware of the millions of Americans who are addicted to opiods and the pain they and their families endure on a regular basis. Intellectually I knew this, but my personal experience for 48 hours of the chaos was an epiphany to me. Spiritually the epiphany was the need for and presence of God’s sustaining grace in the midst of the crisis.
The season after the Epiphany is a time of looking for signs of the presence of Christ–those both longed for and unexpected. Revelation is delightful and filled with awe.
Reverend Lisa Hunt, Rector