Today
is Epiphany. On January 6 the church
celebrates the Feast of Epiphany.
Protestants don’t normally think about it; the Western church attaches
Epiphany to the Wise Men who searched out Jesus after His birth. The Eastern church focuses on the baptism of
Jesus when He was revealed as the Son of God as the Epiphany.
For me
it has become the day that I finally turn off the Christmas lights that have
brightened the dark world during the Christmas season. After all the effort to get them up, I hate
to take them down right after Christmas.
I wait the full twelve days after Christmas until Epiphany to carry out
the sad but by now much needed task.
After all, I say I put them up partly as my Christmas Greeting to my
neighbors. I think they are very tired
of them by January.
Of all
the events in Jesus’ life that we celebrate, this one may seem the least
important. One may wonder why it got
priority on the church calendar in light of more important happenings (like the
calling of the disciples) that do not have their own feast
day.
I’m
glad that I have Epiphany to think about the Magi who traveled to worship
Jesus. Immersed within the birth,
ministry, and death of Jesus, Gentile interactions pop up. The Magi are the first Gentiles to worship
the one true King of all time. They
thought they were coming to celebrate the King of the Jews, but they discovered
a connection to the God of the Universe.
They certainly had a true
epiphany.
As I
take down my Christmas lights, I use Epiphany to reflect on what the Advent and
Christmas season has meant to me this year.
I treasure my memories as I put away another Christmas season. I will never come to fully comprehend all
that God did for me at Christmas. I
certainly don’t have the desire nor the insight to figure out anything that God
has hidden in the stars—I have a hard time finding the big dipper and the little
dipper way up there. No, I’ll spend my
efforts concentrating on how to wind up the lights so that the right end is
ready to connect for the next Christmas.
What I
can immolate from the Wise Men is the worship of Jesus Christ the New Born
King. I can stop on this day and behold
Him by considering all that He came to this earth to do for me then and how much
He does for me now from His seated position at the right hand of
God.
After
all my gifts from Christmas are all put away, now I can think about Jesus the
way the Magi show me. Matthew 2:11 says:
On coming to the house, they saw the
child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they
opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and
myrrh.
I’ll
let this day remind me to bow down and worship Jesus and bring Him the gift He
most desires: my surrendered and humble heart.
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