EPIPHANY

Our verbal journey through the Twelve Days of Christmas brings us to the climax of Epiphany.

If you belong to a Christian denomination whose origin predates the Reformation period, on this day you will probably be involved in some ritual of celebration commemorating the Epiphany. You might have saved the traditional gift giving until this day or you might have had gifts on Christmas morning and again today. Others might have gone to the local water spot to watch young lads dive into icy water to retrieve the Cross of Christ.

If you belong to a Christian denomination whose origin comes during or after the Reformation, the day will probably pass without being much different than any other weekday of the year which hasn’t been designated as a National Holiday in your land of residence.

Epiphany is also called by many Three Kings Day, in recognition of the Magi arriving to present their gifts to the Babe in the manger. Historians have put a damper on this part of the Christmas story by pointing out that the Wise Men may have arrived in Jerusalem as much as three years after the Savior’s mortal birth to present gifts to the ‘Child’.

Some might be curious why there are Christian denominations which celebrate the baptism of Jesus by his cousin John in the waters of the Jordan River or the first miracle of the Lord changing water into wine at the wedding feast on the Day of Epiphany.

If we define Epiphany by its most common synonyms: appearance, manifestation and revelation, we should begin to get an idea of why the events of the Magi, Jesus’s baptism and the performing of his first miracle are remembered on this day.

These manifestations are but a small representation of events which could be pointed to as revelatory of the appearance of The Son of God on earth. These could have added to them the feeding of the 5000 or the raising of Lazarus or a myriad of other evidences which testify of His divinity.

What has come to me as I have taken my own journey through the Twelve Days of Christmas this year leading up to this day of Epiphany, is that what is most important is that I pay whatever price must be paid in order that I experience my own personal Epiphany that I might receive a personal revelatory manifestation of the appearance of the Son of God on earth.

To this I add my testimony to the millions which have been born, that Jesus the Christ was indeed born of Mary, taught us the way unto life eternal and Atoned for the inadequacies of all of Heavenly Father’s children.

THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY OF EPIPHANY – WILLIAM L. RILEY

EDITED BY – KATHLEEN W. RILEY