The wonder of the Christmas season has tapered off by now…unless you celebrate Epiphany. Western churches celebrate Epiphany for the arrival of the magi to the young Jesus—representing that Jesus came also for Gentiles (read: everybody). Eastern churches celebrate Epiphany for Jesus’ baptism, when God publicly announced that this man was His Son—representing Jesus’ divinity. Either way you come at it, Epiphany is celebrating that the Word became human and made His home among us (John 1:14).
An epiphany is a moment when you suddenly see or understand something in a new or very clear way. In a religious sense, it’s an appearance or manifestation of a divine being.
The Persians on a pilgrimage had an epiphany when their journey led to the home of a Jewish toddler. The people gathered around John the Baptist had an epiphany at the Jordan River when Jesus came up out of the water. Both groups had an epiphany moment and saw Jesus for who he was.
A kid’s house. A muddy river. Where’s your epiphany?
The thing about epiphanies is that they tend to happen in mundane places. Moses had taken sheep far into the wilderness when he spotted a bush on fire that wouldn’t burn up. Elijah was standing inside a cave when wind led to an earthquake led to fire led to a still, small voice. Then both men received their life’s mission. Then both realized they were standing on holy ground.
I contend that you’re right where you need to be for an epiphany. You, too, are standing, sitting, sleeping on holy ground. If Christmas taught us anything, it’s this: you cannot drag Christ too low by letting Him into your everyday life. Christ came in every dimension of our world, fitting into time and space, moving from placenta to praetorium. And because of that, there’s no part of your world that’s too lowly or too lofty to prepare Him room.
It’s a false dichotomy, the secular–sacred divide. We ourselves are not just body and not just spirit, and we can’t operate in just one at a time: we’re always embodied spirit, spirited body. They’re inseparable–as is God from every molecule of every aspect of our lives.
Let’s refute the lie that God is too high up to come down in our lowest moments. Let’s refute the lie that He can’t lift us up.
Epiphany: He’s here. HE’s here. He’s HERE. Invite Him in.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning encapsulates this powerfully by recalling Moses’ experience:
“And truly, I reiterate, nothing’s small! …
Earth’s crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries[.]”
-Aurora Leigh, Book Seven, Elizabeth Barrett Browning