Epiphanies
Today, January 6, is Epiphany, an annual Christian feast celebrating the manifestation of the divine nature of Jesus to the Gentiles as represented by the Magi or Wise Men. The word “epiphany” means a revelatory manifestation of a divine being. For Christians there can be no denying that the coming of Jesus was the greatest epiphany of all. In him God was revealed or made manifest like at no other time. In the words of theologian John A. T. Robinson, in Jesus we see “the human face of God.”
There are, however, many other epiphanies recorded in the Scriptures. Examples include the burning bush Moses encountered, Isaiah’s vision in the Temple, and the cloud espied by Peter, James and John at Jesus’ Transfiguration. In a sense, the whole Bible is the record of God making Himself known in one way or another.
On this day of Epiphany I would simply like to remind you that the God who made Himself known in so many different ways in the past continues to make Himself known to us today. God is not someone who tries to hide from us. Instead, He longs for us to know Him better. In the Scriptures many of God’s epiphanies made use of nature (wind, fire, water, etc.). I believe they still do.
John Muir once wrote, “Now all of the individual ‘things’ or ‘beings’ into which the world is wrought are sparks of the Divine Soul variously clothed upon with flesh, leaves, or that harder tissue called rock, water, etc…” God’s Creation has, indeed, been fashioned so that we can experience the Creator behind it.
So why don’t we see God more often in nature? Perhaps it is because we fail to look for Him there? Maybe we’ve even been conditioned to think He can only speak in churches or through sacred writings. The God who made the universe is free to reveal Himself whenever and wherever He chooses. The Scriptures remind us that God’s epiphanies often occur in nature. Shouldn’t that cause us to look around us more carefully?
–Chuck
(The image above was taken at Jenny Wiley State Park in Prestonsburg, Kentucky.)