Epiphany

I love it when things come together.

I’ve been reading bits of Walking the Bible, sharing the journey with the author. As he finds more “proof” for the characters and events that are depicted in the Bible, it feels thrilling. I feel like I’m on the verge of a discovery myself.

Yesterday, in when I made a comment about The Epiphany to my daughter’s piano teacher, she summarized a presentation she’d been to recently by a renowned astronomer who illustrated, through computers and large screens how the planets aligned a little over 2,000 years ago on what had to be December 25. She repeated his explanation that these planets can only align this way once in so many thousands of years and they’ve determined that the last time they would have done so would have been at that time.
Using the large tv/computer screens, he showed what the night sky would have looked like when these planets all aligned -- like an incredibly bright star.

So I Googled that today and learned a little before going bloghopping. A post on Simply Put led me to Q’s blog, Ragged Glory. There, I learned a lot more about how the date, December 25, was assigned to the birth of Christ. I also learned that some observe January 6 as the birthday of the baby Jesus. My family has always called this date “Little Christmas.” My mother’s family observed a Christmas celebration on this day when she was growing up. Her mother had been brought up in the Ukrainian Orthodox Catholic church and observed January 6 as Christmas but I thought it was due to the arrival of the Magi on this date. (Having no cars, it took them 12 days to get to the spot that the star had illuminated for them…)

I went to Mass this morning where we celebrated the Feast of the Epiphany, recognizing that this is the day those wise men arrived. While that may be true, that isn’t where the Orthodox Church got the date. Q explains beautifully where these dates originated. I’m still marveling at this post. The explanation is logical, symbolic and almost seems obvious now…and yet I’ve never heard this information before.

Every once in a while, I will hear a song more than once in the same day and, because I’m just that weird, it occurs to me that perhaps Someone is trying to get my attention for one reason or another.
At three different times today, I heard the same song playing on the car radio. As I do tend to change stations often in the car, this is not all that remarkable. If it were the latest pop hit or yet another carol on this day, I would understand. It was not. It was Eric Clapton’s Tears in Heaven. This song holds no personal attachment for me – it was a hit when my grandmother passed away and my younger brother suggested having it played at the funeral – but that’s as far as attached memories go. However, because the song is what it is, it does lead my mind in that direction and I wonder…

Webster’s has three definitions for the word “Epiphany.” I love that I can use all three definitions in discussing some part of my day today.

Everything keeps falling into place today. It has been a bright albeit cold day. I only had a few things I had to get done and they’re done. I wanted to write more on the WIP but I wrote some and had a new revelation for one of the main characters so that helps a lot. (I felt like I was learning some really cool things today that I can also justify as research for this character! I love it when that happens!)

So after sending one child off to a friend’s house after school and watching the other nod off for a nap, I started to wonder at all the connections. Is it just a really good day?
Then I had my epiphany: it is The Epiphany. It is a special day.