“Ah ha! I’ve had an epiphany! I now know…” I have heard friends exclaim as they discovered a new idea or a solution to a problem.
So what is an epiphany? A sudden revelation? Maybe it’s an idea that pops up into your head and then you know for sure this must be “it”? Maybe a new direction laid out for you after having searched for a time?
I grew up honoring a day called Epiphany. And yes, it did have to do with a revelation. The Kings, or Wise Men and their entourage arrived after following a star to share gifts and homage to the newborn Christ Child. It didn’t happen at His birth. It happened some time later.
I wonder how these important personages knew to come? Did they have an “epiphany” and so set out on this trip? If so, how did this come to their attention? I don’t know all these answers, but I have gleaned some interesting possibilities in my readings. Scholars have a greater understanding than I, but it seems to me that the Magi were the prophets or Wise Men of their day.
The Hebrew prophet, Daniel, was captured and sent to Babylon eons ago. He lived his life there. He became part of the Magi of the Babylonian administration. He wrote things down when God talked to him. The Medes (who were part of the Persian/Iran Army and now populate places in Northern Iraq) conquered Babylon for Persia.
Could it be that these men, the Magi from the East (where the Medes and Persians resided), had carefully studied Daniel’s writings passed down through their generations? Perhaps they studied astronomy and searched the writings diligently to be ready when the time came for the Savior King to arrive on earth. How much dedication and determination did it take for them to follow up on what they learned?
What does it mean to us now?
The Christ Child has come. He has fulfilled His earthly destiny and now left it up to us to accept His gift of eternal life. Will we have the same dedication and determination to search out what generations before us have yearned to share with us?
“Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem saying, ‘Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him,’” Matthew 2:1,2.
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