There are times when I seek hither and yon to come up with a topic for my weekly article. Some weeks, it’s slim picking’s folks. This week I nearly met my Waterloo when I noticed January 6th, the Epiphany, on the calendar.

Like "hither and yon" and "met my Waterloo". Epiphany is a term that has simply atrophied and fallen out of common usage. I don’t know about you, but I had absolutely no idea what it referred to and I could end this article and leave you in the lurch, affording you no relief from innumerable sleepless nights! But as Miss. Leah says about Pastor Dowd, I’m like a dog with a bone and I would not let my lack of knowledge go unsatisfied.

I knew an epiphany was a realization, a sudden understanding - a light bulb over the head, so to speak. But Biblically, it refers to twelve days after Christ’s birth, (why twelve - I don’t know), and in times past, the Epiphany was celebrated by churches. Specifically it commemorates two specific events: the coming of the Maji to Nazareth, (Matt. 2: 1 - 12), and the baptism of Christ by John the Baptist.

Yes folks, the wise men were never in Bethlehem at Christ’s birth as we insist on depicting the scene, but visited Christ as a child. These two events are referred to as the Epiphany, or when Christ revealed Himself to the Gentiles as the Messiah.

But in reality, there were many epiphanies. They began with the prophets of old, as well as the pagan shepherds who were told by the angels of the Messiah, (Luke2: 8 - 22), with Zacharias, (Luke 1: 67 - 80), and Simeon who waited at the Temple, (Luke 2: 25 - 35).

Christ’s baptism is part of the Epiphany because the Holy Spirit spoke of Christ the Messiah, (John 1: 15 - 34). Yet we can assume that, not only did John the Baptist witness the Holy Spirit through the appearance of the Dove, but many others may have been baptized by John at that time or had followed this apparent madman as a form of distraction or entertainment.

He was, after all, a rather strange person.

So the list goes on throughout the gospels and while the Epiphany refers to the first revelations to man of Christ as the Messiah, it instructs to not be a keeper of the revelation but to spread the Epiphany. For me, it was October 18, 1974, when a newly converted Jew, who had the tact of a bull moose in a china shop, showed me the light. For you, it may have come gradually as a result of being born in a Christian home. In any case, the news is out and it’s our job to spread it.

I thank the Lord for His word that is as powerful today as it was 2000 years ago. It’s a word which continues to teach and instruct. Let it be a light for all those who seek to dispel the darkness of their world. Come visit Blake’s Chapel Advent Christian Church where we celebrate His word and the epiphany lives on.