This word, epiphany, has come into use in general conversation in our culture. It is used to take account of specific moments of new and even surprising encounters. Such encounters might be with a piece of music or visual art, with an extraordinary view of a familiar landscape made “new” by the quality of its appearance enhanced by sunlight or moonlight, by newly fallen snow or by an ethereal mist or fog settled over it.

     These encounters not only cause us to recognize something new or enhanced “out there,” but they also cause us to experience something new or enhanced “in here.”

     For centuries, Christians have reserved this term for the celebration that is ours this week: The Epiphany of the Lord. It is easy to jump too quickly to an awareness of the Three Magi or Three Kings. Epiphany does not begin with them, but begins with the promise that has been revealed to them by their study of ancient texts and by their study of the stars. It becomes compelling for them when they “see” that Star that will guide them to the place where they laid the Child. Epiphany resides with this Child, Whose Star calls and guides these three seekers just as surely as the voices of the angels led the shepherds to find this Child. It is the sudden and predicted if unexpected appearance of One Who is born to be King, in a manger of all places!

     Now we can ask, what does Epiphany mean “in here”? How is my vision of the created, and especially the human landscape changed by what I see and hear in faith? What needs do I see now that I might not have seen or even ignored lacking this new light? What treasure reaches from God to me that I might have missed in my own darker moments, the softness, the richness, the sparkle of which might lead and heal? God not only says something different about the world in this Child, but DOES something different with this world, in this Child!