Epiphany journey and rest

6th January is the Feast of the Epiphany. It marks the end of the Christmas season and the start of the Epiphany season which continues to Candlemas on 2nd February.

The celebration on 6th January features the strange outsiders from the east, the magi, the 'wise men'. They followed the direction of a new star, expecting to find a new special king. What they found was a toddler with his parents, in an ordinary house in Bethlehem, on what was presumably for Mary, Joseph and their son Jesus, an ordinary day. And they were overwhelmed with joy. You can find my previous posts for Epiphany on my Epiphany page here.

Something wonderful was revealed to those mysterious strangers that the locals didn't see. They experienced an 'epiphany', an eye-opener, a moment of revelation. They glimpsed the glory of God in the face of the child Jesus. You can read the story in Matthew's gospel here and you might notice that unlike most nativity plays there are no camels, no kings, no stable and the number of magi isn't specified. 

I love the way that in the painting by He Qi at the head of this post, Mary appears to be sleeping, with her head resting on her child Jesus. Jesus, on the other hand is calmly awake, as if attentive to the strangers who visit and bow before him with their gifts of gold, frankincese and myrrh.

I recently came across this poem/prayer for Epiphany by Kate Compston. I particularly like the way it ends with the request to "make us restless till we journey forth to seek our rest in you".

Beckoning God—
who called the rich to travel toward poverty,
the wise to embrace your folly,
and the powerful to know their own frailty;
who gave strangers
a sense of homecoming in an alien land
and to stargazers
true light and vision as they bowed to earth—
we lay ourselves open to your signs for us…
Rise within us, like a star,
and make us restless
till we journey forth
to seek our rest in you.

Kate Compston

Image Credit: He Qi, The Magi, Vanderbilt Divinity Library