Jeanette Renouf

Epiphany; “a usually sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something: an intuitive grasp of reality through an event usually simple and striking: an illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure.” My first Epiphany in the Episcopal Church was certainly that but most of us have experienced one or more epiphanies in our lives. “Oh yes, now I get it” we will say.

My imagination goes to those magi, wise men from the East, who had been so faithfully following that bright star. They were probably expecting it to lead them to the palace of a king or a guru in a cave. What was their response to finding a baby in a stable, born to poor Jewish parents? They surely must have consulted their charts, looked again at the star. “Could this be the right place?” Then an epiphany, a sudden, striking illumination, realization, a new reality. Yes, this was what they were seeking. They presented their gifts, hardly the ones they would have brought to a baby but surely this was no ordinary baby.

Often, we too think we know what we are going to find on the Christian journey but God always has surprises for us, new epiphanies of what it means to follow Jesus. Each Christmas season we seek to have Christ born anew in us. Gentiles, men of a foreign faith, were drawn to this baby Jesus and were among the first to recognize him as a gift of God. God opened the door to a new reality for them and for the world. May we too be ready to see God at work in the world in new ways and to be open to following where the Light leads no matter the difficulty of the journey. We need to continue to follow, accept and offer the gifts of Christ to the world.

Jeanette Renouf, PhD., DMin.