The Season of Epiphany

Over the last couple of years as I’ve learned more about the church calendar, my appreciation for the way it allows us to celebrate the life of Jesus in a yearly rhythm has deepened. As of this week, we are moving out of the season of Epiphany and into the season of Lent. (I know this not because of what I’ve learned at church but because I’m from Louisiana, and it’s time for Mardi Gras! Mardi Gras and Fat Tuesday tell me that the season of Lent is quickly approaching.) Sooooo, just as an epiphany is a revelation, the church’s celebration of Epiphany is about the revelation, the making known, that Jesus is God incarnate. It’s the realization by the Wise Men that new King has come. It moves beyond Advent and Christmas and the anticipation and celebration of Christ’s birth into the reality that the Son of God became flesh and lived and walked on this earth.

In this season of Epiphany, I’ve been considering what it means for the man Jesus to be the incarnate Christ. I know that it means that God has entered our world, the real world that you and I know. More specifically, it means that Jesus knows what it means to celebrate, and I love that He knows what it means to celebrate. Hello, He turned water into wine!! I also love that Jesus knows what it means to grieve. Remember the garden of Gethsemane?

Truth is, I don’t think I’ve allowed myself to consider the vast implications for acknowledging God’s presence in our world. In the past, I’ve lived afraid of fully acknowledging that God has entered our world, a world that includes pain and suffering and death and injustice, because I wasn’t sure God, as I knew Him, could handle it. The reality is that I can’t handle not acknowledging that God has entered our world. The God who created this world knows my pain, my suffering. He knows the gut wrenching struggles of my friend who hates everything about herself. He knows.

As much as I get it, I don’t get it….Jesus is God incarnate. This is Epiphany.